Weekend in Surabaya

Accompanying my father, we traveled to Surabaya. I’m in Surabaya (East Java, Indonesia) since last Thursday; at my brother’s home. I plan to go back home next Tuesday; but I still haven’t yet searched for the ticket. I prefer to travel by train this time.

If there’s no changing plan, my father will stay longer in Surabaya; perhaps until the hajj departure date. Well, it’s all up to my father’s decision; but I can’t accompany him, I must go back to our home in Bogor (West Java, Indonesia).

Last Saturday, my father, my brother and SIL conducted hajj training. I had different occasion to attend.

My lower secondary school and high school days were in Surabaya. July 10th 2011 was the lower secondary school reunion date that I wanted to attend. Unfortunatelly, I can’t come as my father must be hospitalized.

But I’m not disappointed anymore, as on last Saturday, I can meet several old friends and had lunch together. It’s not only ordinary lunch, as we decided to keep the good communication and relationship more seriously.

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Birds at Airport Garden

I saw them through a big glass window at Soekarno Hatta airport (Jakarta, Indonesia). We call it kutilang, cangkurileung, ketilang or genthilang, following the sound of his distinctive voice.

In English, this bird called Sooty-headed Bulbul (Pycnonotus aurigaster) is a species of songbird in the Pycnonotidae family. It is found in Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam.

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Bring Ocean Feel to Your Home

Are you included people that always prefer visiting sea to mountain or other places? Do you crave to live by the ocean or travel the seas but in fact, you still can’t move and go to your dream place? For sea lovers like you, there’s a best solution. You can get an ocean feel to your home by bringing natural décor into your home.

Even if you live in a desert, a proper nautical décor will give very different ocean touch. You can beautify your home with an extraordinary nautical theme; your option is limitless!

You can create a coastal décor in your home by only adding in a few pieces by placing marine themed furniture and lights, painting the room with a sky blue and some white base boards, hanging beach and ship pictures, attaching various nautical items such ship models, nautical clocks, ship wheels, telescopes, sea shells decorations, installing a fisherman’s net on the wall, and many other more.

As mentioned before, you have endless possibilities; dig your creativity and get inspiration by visiting seaside homes during open house events, searching online information and reading home magazines.

When it comes to nautical stuffs, you can get it online at Gonautical.com, especially if you are a model ship collector. Gonautical.com would become your favorite place to search for nautical gifts! For your information, model ships are scale representations of ships. These models can vary in size from 1/6000 scale miniatures to large boats that able to hold people. You’ll love the site, as they provide miniature ships in various categories, from civil warships, famous ships, coast guard, tall ships, cruise ships, fishing boats, pirate ships, sail boats, ships in bottles to speed boats! I’m myself very interested with ships in bottles; I wonder how the creators made it! Which one do you like best?

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Five Tips when Moving Out of Home

Moving out of your parents home is an exciting time but you need to plan ahead and be ready for it otherwise you may find yourself getting the removalists to help shift you back. Whether you are renting, moving into a share house, heading off to a university dormitory or buying your own home you need to sort out your finances and make sure you are organised. There is certainly a lot to think about if you are buying your own home, such as making sure you can make the repayments and organising home and contents insurance.

Check your finances

Before you even move out of home firstly work out if you can afford to. If you are studying full time you need to consider how many contact hours you have at university and how much time will be taken up with travel, then work out whether you will have time to work. If you are just starting out in a job it might be better to wait until you are more financially secure. If you are planning on renting make sure that you have enough for your bond and a few months rent in advance, just in case you run into any trouble. You will also have the cost of utilities, food, petrol or public transport and other daily expenses.

Budgeting

Once you are out of home you need to keep on top of your finances. With the freedom of moving away from your parents home it is tempting to get a little carried away with buying furniture and other items for your new home, and it is even easy to get over enthusiastic when going food shopping and buying a lot of things you don't really need. Moving out of home can be a a bit of a shock to some people as they realise that every month the bills roll in and they need to be paid. Set up a budget for yourself and stick to it. Make a list of everything that needs to be paid each month and set aside money for these expenses first.

Furniture

When you first start out on your own it is likely that you won't have much furniture, and often people can't afford to buy new things straight away. Friends and family may have old furniture they can lend or give to you, otherwise you can make do with the few things you have.

Cooking

If you can't cook then now is the time to learn. It really isn't that difficult, just buy yourself some easy cook books and stick to the recipes. A cook book will give you step by step instructions so you really can't go wrong. Don't be tempted to just buy take away every night as it works out to be way more expensive than cooking from scratch, plus it is very unhealthy.

Cleaning

Moving out of home will also make you discover that the toilet and shower don't just clean themselves. Buy yourself the right cleaning products right from the beginning and make sure you use them, otherwise the task of cleaning, when you do finally get to it, is even harder. Vacuum once a week, give the shower a wipe down and try to keep things tidy as you go, it saves on having to clean an enormous mess.

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Going Out of Town

Tomorrow we’ll go to Surabaya (East Java, Indonesia). My father asked us to accompany him, because his condition hasn’t been fit yet to travel alone.I've bought plane tickets yesterday, but my father asked for changing the departure time, as he felt it was too early. Hopefully this issue can be resolved.

My father would leave pilgrimage this year. He will go along with my brother and SIL who lives in Surabaya. That's why my father should be in Surabaya soon for Hajj training has already started.

For Watery Wednesday, I share here a fish pond in my grandfather’s house, captured months ago.

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