Our brief rendezvous

There's always a slight feeling of satisfaction after meeting a dear old friend. Spending a time with a best childhood friend is like finding your old diary in an almost forgotten vintage treasure chest, stored up in the attic. At times, the experience is likened to when you're walking down a lane you haven't been on for a while, or polishing off a mouthful of nanna's home-made chocolate gateaux that you haven't encountered for ages because destiny called study abroad has set you both apart for 10 years.**

As for me, the experience is like encountering a pack of dusty Sailor Moon comic books in the storage room. That definite moment when having the book on my lap, back leaning straight against the damp white wall of the storage room, and me fondly flicking every page of Sailor Moon, is very heartwarming.

The same could be said for what I felt two weeks ago when meeting an old high school friend. Back then, we had many similar interests. Now, we have a smorgasbord of 'em. She is now a Medicine student and a blogger -- a beauty blogger to be precise -- on her spare time. She's Nataly. The last time we met was around five or six years back. And we haven't heard from one another ever since.

So, after those six years I finally met this long-lost friend through Instagram (all hail The Internet) and then we arranged a meet-up for a photoshoot around the Old Batavia (Kota Tua) in Jakarta.



We chatted, we gossiped, we laughed all day looong. We also came up with a gazillion ideas to do a collab for our blog. And preoccupied though we were with catching up on one another's lives, we did enjoy our photoshoot very much. Our photos came up really natural, relaxed, and honest ♫ ♪ 

And Nataly's back with a rad ombré hair. This time, her hair features a reddish-orange hue with a slight wet curl at each end. I remember back in high school how she appeared in our classroom, one day after a summer holiday, with a green, blue, and red hair. It's enough to stir a chaos between the teachers! Sadly, she had to dye it black at the end. Now, when reminiscing over it again, we just laughed it off.

We had nothing but fun and laughter before us. Our brief rendezvous was, undoubtedly, the first of many more to come. 

*All pictures in this post belongs to me. Edits by yours truly.

** Please accept my apology for creating such a mouthful sentence. It's kinda fun you know, watching people hyperventilating as they read through my blog. Oh there you go I'm doing it again. Sorry.

Capitolo 2: Aqualungs

Father and daughter were as happy as a clam ◕‿◕

I am now a certified PADI Open Water Diver! Y-A-Y! * 

Before I'm exposed to this diving absurdity, I had no idea at all that diving course would only require so little time. I thought the whole diving course gonna take weeks (in my case, months), however, you could actually squeeze it into two days. 

So, what is this PADI thing then? PADI Open Water Diver course is the first step you have to take if you'd like to take a scuba diving certificate. Basically, it's the entry-level course. There's around five or so scuba diving certification; PADI and SSI to name a few (I don't know the rest). I never heard anyone got their cert from SSI, so you can just leave it out and take PADI course instead. PADI courses in Indonesia aren't hard to find nowadays. I know there are several in Grogol, Senayan, Ancol. The one that I had was at Divemasters Indonesia in Kemang, South Jakarta. Psst! From what I heard, this dive centre is the best in town!

Gallery day

I went to Galeri Nasional Indonesia today.

It was my first visit to one of Jakarta’s local attractions this year. Not that I’m indifferent towards visiting local museums, art space and monuments, it’s just I had had no time. Heck, I didn’t even have the time to think of visiting those place when I was still working a couple of weeks back.

I, myself, am a fan of museums. Well probably not the museum, but the mystery each museum has.

So today, after my 6-month hiatus of visiting museum (the last museum/art space I went to before Galeri Nasional was Melbourne’s NGV), I finally set foot on one of the capital’s topmost art space – thanks to my ex-housemate-cum-best-friend Dyota, who took me there. 

Feeling nostalgic

/ Il Battistero di San Giovanni, Piazza dei Miracoli, Pisa, Tuscany Province, Italy / 

Hey, it's been more than a year.
There was nothing to be called as an achievement.
It wasn't my part to boast.
How grateful I am!
To be able to venture out, satisfying my hunger and thirst to realise my dream.


Picture by Pingkan Isabella