Animal Topiary (2)

I have flu symptoms since yesterday. My body wants me to lie down, but my mind wants me to write some blog updates first.

Last week I’ve shared some animal topiary inside Nusantara Flower Park (Cipanas, West Java, Indonesia). This time I’ll share the other topiary. I wish you can enjoy them, have a great week end!

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Couple’s Corner : We Promise

Keeping marriage happy and harmonic needs efforts from both husband and wife. Since the topic of this week is about what we could promise to keep our marriage; I’ll mention first a little about promise. It’s said that a promise is your word to someone else. The promise is important and not to be taken lightly. Don’t say “I promise” if you aren’t sure and there’s still a doubt in your mind. Other people will appreciate and trust you more if you always keep your promises.

But when it comes to promises in our marriage, it’s only between me and my hubby. I agree with the saying: Marriage is a promise of love and a commitment to life. In a marriage, two people are trying to reach equal physical and emotional relationship, and it’s promised for a lifetime.

Well, to keep our marriage happy, we’ll try to do these: better open communication, keep the faith, love, trust and romantic between us, and do better ways to solve any problem. We still don’t have a child, and I know that it can cause a broken marriage. But we’ve promised that it won’t break our marriage, as we always keep our love together.

We believe that every marriage has its own path of life. Only God knows the right time for us to have a child. Sorry for writing here, but I always have this bad mood every time I’m getting older. Birthday isn’t a happy moment for me. I still can’t stop the negative feeling that the older I become, the harder for me to get my dream.

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To Give a Worry-Free Life to Your Family

We have realized that our future is really unknown; anything –even the most terrible situation- can occur in the future. That’s why insurance is needed to protect you from unpredictable conditions in your future. Nowadays, there are already many insurance types offered by insurance companies. But with the current economy situation and limited budget, getting protection in affordable rates is becoming one of most people’s concerns.

Have you noticed that funeral cost can be so expensive? At present time, it’s not a taboo anymore to prepare things for your own funeral, such as getting funeral or final expense or burial insurance. You need burial insurance to make sure that all of your funeral costs are paid for and there won’t be any hassle with your burial ceremony. You don’t want to make your family worry about your expensive funeral cost, right? At BurialInsurance.org, you’ll find out that you’ll get all information that you need; including obtaining free

final expense insurance rates, just by filling out their simple form.

If you are a senior citizen that needs more coverage than funeral expenses, you can consider getting the other type of insurance like senior life insurance. You should visit BurialInsurance.org to know more about senior life insurance policy. Since your family is the most important thing in your life, investing in senior life insurance could be the best decision to ensure their continuing happiness, after you leave them for good. 

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The Musical Fountain

It’s one of my favorite spots inside Nusantara Flower Park (Cipanas, West Java, Indonesia). The patterns of spraying water are changing – follows the played music. If you sit near the fountain, it feels like smooth rain. You’ll love to sit there and watch the dancing water. The music is nice to listen and the air is so fresh!

My entry for Watery Wednesday

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Saturday Afternoon in Sempur Field

Every afternoon, if it isn’t raining, lots of people will visit Sempur field (Bogor, West Java, Indonesia) to do various activities. Especially on the week end, you can see more people there; children, adults and elder. Let’s see. What kind of activities that you can do in Sempur Field? You have many options: you can run and bike around the field, play football, volleyball, basketball, or you can try wall climbing.

If you don’t want to get sweat, you can just sit or look for something to eat and drink since many food sellers are available there. When I visit Sempur Field, we always look for our favorite food there: chicken porridge or chicken noodle. Do you have a public place like this in your city? Ours is very simple one, but this field has become one of favorite places for many people in my city.

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Animal Topiary

Inside Nusantara Flower Park (Cipanas, West Java, Indonesia), you can see lots of animal topiaries. Why don’t I post here in Camera Critters? This time I share three of them, one is the biggest topiary in the park.

I won’t mention here what animals they are, as I’m sure that you can guess it.

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Couple’s Corner: Why Bad Habits are Hard to Break?

We’re still talking about habits this week. Well, I’ve ever shared here about my old bad habits that I feel hard to change. Why is it hard to break our bad habits? We call some behaviors as habits if we always do these behaviors frequently.

Honestly, I don’t know the right answer. My hubby often complains about my disorganized behavior. I really want to change; but it’s difficult. I’ve read lots of great advice out there about how to change bad habit; but it only held out for a few days, and I always come back to my old habit. Sigh.

It makes me curious enough to find the answer. Fortunately, I found an article that explained this situation. In fact, it relates with basic human biology, especially human brain!

I’ll share here a brief of the article to you:

There’s a small region in the middle of human brain that owes ability to form memories: the hippocampus. This brain region is the gateway to forming and recalling memories.

The hippocampus keeps most of the things that you see and experience in short term memory while other regions of your brain are working out if it’s actually important. If what you’ve seen or learnt is important, then the hippocampus will record it. If it’s not important then it’s rapidly lost, and you’re not capable to remember it easily.

Your brain will remember things if only there has been some importance attached to it, often because of repetitive experience. It’s how we learn almost everything. It’s how to change the old habit and have a new better one.

Check this out: repetition and reinforcement things that are important for you to remember are the triggers your brain requires to begin forming long lasting memories and behavior patterns.

You have to actually try something different, and then you must repeat it and practice it until your hippocampus realizes it’s important and you remember it, and act on it automatically.

If we’ve just read this and that tips without practicing it repetitively, our brain will not see it as important things; we’ll forget it easily. That’s why it’s hard to change the old bad habits, if we don’t try to do the new and better habits repeatedly and continually. Keep doing it with discipline, until your hippocampus remembers it!

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The Pond and Black Swan Statue

Located in parking area of Taman Bunga Nusantara (Nusantara Flower Park) Cipanas, West Java, Indonesia, this pond and black swan statue seem to welcome you with their beauties.

Seeing and listening to the falling water is so refreshing and relaxing.

Inside the park, you can find several other ponds and fountains. I’ll share it later, one by one.

My entry for Watery Wednesday

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Our Favorite Place to Hang Out

Do you like to drink your coffee or any other beverage in a cozy place that also gives you a great view? Well, this café has become our favorite. I love their cappuccino…hmmm…it feels so great every time you drink it! Their beverages aren’t too sweet, it fits with our taste. The famous Starbuck is too expensive for us; we prefer this café, Café XXI. The prices are more affordable.

Located in Bogor Trade Mall (Bogor, West Java, Indonesia), this café is a terrace of BTM XXI cinema. If the weather is bright, you can see Salak Mountain here.

Last Friday we ordered two cappuccinos and toasted bread as we don’t feel hungry. All are yummy… What a wonderful place to spend your afternoon or wait your movie showing time!

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The Mascot of Nusantara Flower Park

If you visit Taman Bunga Nusantara (Nusantara Flower Park) in Cipanas (West Java, Indonesia) you will be welcomed by this big black swan statue in parking area. Black swan (Cygnus attratus) is the mascot of this flower park.

I and my husband visited Nusantara Flower Park yesterday, Saturday morning. You can find black swan in the Lake Swan area. It’s a pity that he/she isn’t in the mood to swim that morning.

Australia is the origin of black swan. They have strong stamina, can easily adapt with the environment and multiply, though they don’t live in their original habitat. An elegant creature!

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Couple's Corner: Good Habits that Will Never Change

Last week I shared about our old bad habits; this week is about our good habits that we are proud to have and that’s why we don’t want to change it.

I don’t know if it can be included good habits, but I always do it every day/frequently:

I always welcome my hubby with a smiling face every time he arrived home, every night. I won’t bother him with my nagging words.

Every time he’s leaving home for work, I always kiss his hand and accompany him until he enters the car. We wave our hands and I always say, “Drive safely”. Then I pray to God for his safety.Two good habits of my hubby that I love:
He always says “I love you” to me several times, every day.
He always hugs and kisses me before going to sleep and leaving home for work.
He has new good habits that I want him to continue and keep:
He prefers coffee with less sugar now.
He still can’t stop smoking but he has decreased the cigarette consumption.

Well, it’s our share this time. How about you? What are your good habits?

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Before and After

There’s a significant change in my grandfather’s house’s back yard. The rice field has changed into a large pond. My father said that actually, it was a large pond from the beginning. After the little dam around was broken, the yard was planted with rice. But unfortunately, it’s not easy to maintain and watch over the rice field.

Then about two months ago, my father decided to turn it back into a large pond again. After some repairs were done here and there, water can flow into the yard. The water is still shallow now, but I guess soon it will be deep enough for wandering it with a boat. Various fish have been spread there since last month; I hope I can be there for watching the first harvest…

My entry for Watery Wednesday

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Last Sunday

For the last three weeks, three of us (me, my husband and my father) have done the same thing: going out for lunch together on every Sunday. That time, we decided to try Gumati restaurant (Batu Tulis, Bogor, Indonesia). We’ve never yet visited there before.

My first impression is its great view. You’ll love the atmosphere. Cozy and comfortable. But I don’t recommend much the food; it’s nothing special. We ordered some Indonesian food there. They only have average taste. When it came times to play the bill…wow…it’s expensive enough for us.

If I am the owner of this beautiful place, I’ll hire more quality chefs, hehehe…peace! Well, it’s a nice place to hang out, really. Enjoy the view!

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A Busy Bee?

I saw this kind of bee or fly on my SIL’s Spatiphyllum flower. Is it a bee or a fly or other kind of insect?

If it's a bee, I don’t know much about bee species, as there are nearly 20,000 known species of bees in the world. Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants.

Bees are famous for their role in pollinating blossoming plants and for producing honey and beeswax. You can find bees on every continent except Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants. In fact, bees are the major type of pollinator in ecosystem that contains flowering plants.

A friend, Gunsirit, informed me that it's more similar with a fly, a blood sucking fly. Too scary for me! Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams ~ Ashley Smith

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Couple's Corner : Our Old Bad Habits

I and my hubby are not perfect persons; we have some bad habits that we feel hard to change. I think writing down our bad habits can remind and motivate us to decrease it. I hope it will work, hehehe.

Some bad habits of mine :
1. I’m a stubborn woman. If I feel that I’m right, it’s not easy for you to change my mind. But now I’m better; I want to listen other’s argument and opinion.

2. I’m moody too. If I’m in my bad mood that day, I can be so lazy on the whole day. And it may happen several times in a month. Sigh. I must change!

3. I’m still not good with organize things. My disorganize kitchen and wardrobes are the examples. It takes more times to find one stuff that I need. My mother always writes every cent money that she spends every day on a special book. I’m still lazy to do this every day…

Some bad habits of my hubby :
1.He can’t stop smoking.
2.He still put his wet towel on the bed.
3.He’s hard to wake up early in the morning.
4.He loves to shop, more than me. He’s an impulsive buyer…
5.He’s also not an organized person. Well, we are a disorganized couple, hehehe…

Can we change these bad habits? Hmmm…(it means a doubt)…

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Fishermen’s Boats

My husband captured the fishermen’s boats around Pengandaran Beach (Ciamis, West Java, Indonesia). I think catching fish on the sea is one of the toughest jobs in the world.

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore ~Vincent Van Gogh

My entry for Watery Wednesday

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New Year's Eve and Laptop's Accident

A little accident happened yesterday night. My husband dropped his glass of water and some water was pouring down on the laptop's keypads. The immediate result is: lots of keypads are malfunction. I can't type! Now I write this post at an internet cafe. My laptop is still being repaired; I hope I can use it again soon and visit you, my blogger friends!

How's your New Year's eve? I have nothing special to do. It's not our tradition to celebrate a coming new year. I feel lazy to go out and get trapped in traffic jam. We just sat at the balcony and tried to capture fireworks that we can see. It's the best that I can get, since I only used my pocket digicam.

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Javan Lutung (Trachypithecus auratus)

It’s me who holding the animal. Sorry for not sharing the clear photo, we don’t have a scanner here. It was captured several years ago, when I dropped by to a friend’s house. His neighbor was the owner. This lutung was so tame!

The Javan Lutung is also known as the Ebony Lutung and Javan Langur. It is most commonly glossy black with a brownish tinge to its legs, sides, and sideburns. This critter origin is from Indonesia, as it’s found on and endemic to the island of Java, as well as on several of the surrounding Indonesian islands.Have you ever touched a Javan Lutung like me?

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