Sweets

If you ask me one thing I will spend my money with no compromise for, is berries. After I squeezed myself to not to spend my short allowance for pricey food and managed what I had last week, I finally gave up. I know myself worked so hard lately so I thought I deserved for something sweets and pardon, how could I close my eyes to these pretties?

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I took these pictures on a cloudy Sunday noon right after I came back from groceries shopping last week. I wasn’t sure enough that natural light that day would make me happy with the result. For notes, I used standard lenses on my mirrorless and yikes for ‘the-same-and-still-the-same’ props.

I was so exhausted today yet before I close my eyes I have two other sweets for you guys, one is for your eyes and another one is for your ears. This one is so so good for your eyes esp if you are baby in photography just like me :) (if you are visiting this blog for the first time, fyi I’m Alice’s die hard fan. It sounds cliché for you guys who knew it since ;)). And this one is brilliantly written by one of my fav singer, Ed Sheeran (Ed, you are a genius indeed). I guarantee you will fly to the sky with that song. What you need to do is take your earphones, darken your room, lighten a scented candles and enjoy every words and the melody on it.

 

Good night!

-A-

Today’s Inspirations

Sometimes, inspirations come instantly at nowhere.

I came back to my apartment this afternoon after I spent one night at other Indonesian expatriates’s flats. I rarely spend my Saturday night outside esp when I have no events on the weekend. I pretty happier when I spend it inside my room, chilling and watching movies from my MacBook, snacks of course, and wake up late on Sunday morning. But yesterday, when my two other flatmates asked me to spend there, I said yes to myself. I just wanted to spend my Saturday night quite different.

It was quite fun when I could meet with some familiar faces and some ‘just-met’ yesterday. Having conversation with Indonesian woman who has been living in this country for almost twelve years, I cooked with others, and ate (I should repeat this word three times, ate and ate and ate). Yes, too-much hi-cholesterol food there!. One wasn’t finished, another one came.

My fav moment from my stay was a chance to go to Sunday market with them this morning. Sunday market opens very early only on Sunday at somewhere near their apartment. We went there to shop local fruits & veggies, fresh fishes, butchery, chinese tofu of course, and some other things. I always enjoy traditional market vibes where I can see people doing their activities, selling, bargaining, offering their things to costumer and other simply things. From our visit I went home with fresh prawns, fishes, and tofu. And bonus for me, when I could capture these ‘texture-play’ photos via iPhone 6.

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I always love a moment when I find something interesting around me, take my iPhone and feel happy for clear pictures then. So many interesting objects at the market as I wish people here could me more humble. Well, I think I shouldn’t talk longer, will enjoy my rest of Sunday with my new scented candle. It’s lavender.

 

Cheers,

-A-

Oh, I thought tomorrow is still Sunday, uh.

Current Mood

Waking up from super comfortable bed with a soft and thick white blanket. Messy hair doesn’t stop me to open the window. I’m off from my room, then walking on the sand. Morning breeze and the blue ocean tuck me peacefully. I walk and walk until I find myself in a different place where all I can see is the magic of this nature. A golden hour.

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That’s my current mood right now.

P.S. All images were taken with iPhone 5. Ku De Ta, Bali.

I Deserved

I’ll take you into these, and please imagine for me.

First.

You are chilling inside your room on Sunday noon. Crossing your legs on top of your bed, trying to relax a bit after you spent two hours cooking your lunch and cleaning your whole kitchen. Your mind is having ideas to enjoy the rest of your Sunday after you had a quite busy last week. Watching a movie in your MacBook, laying on your bed with hazelnut chocolate in your hand. Or, open your blog and try to write something before you meet with another deadlines the day after. Then, one hour later, your phone is ringing from your colleague. You are trying to not to worry that the calling is about, yep! about work. Until you realise that there is no choice but you have to rush for a meeting with a client.

You take your Zara tee, black jeans, and add a casual jacket in 10 seconds, trying to look smart yet not too formal. Then, your boss is calling your phone and tell you that you have to be in the meeting room for less that 45 minutes. The distance from where you are living to the hotel where you’ll meet with a bunch of politicians, it’s not near. It means you’ll be in a medium-high speed of vehicle for, let say 30 minutes. You realise that you do not have a personal driver that day to take you there. Instead, your boss send her driver for you so you can be there on time. Forget about your colleague, at least, there is somebody as a representative. Please take note, that you are a kind of person who hate lateness.

Arriving in the hotel and you realise that those politicians are not ready for the meeting. You try to call one of the top, I mean, the leader in that group, to let him know that you are there. You are waiting until you look at your wrist watch. 35 minutes past 5 pm, finally, your colleague whose house is so far, is there with you. Then, both of you are trying to cool down with those politicians after you meet them inside the meeting room. They say to you that you can wait outside. They want to do their intern meeting. Both of you are waiting until,……..three hours!. I hope you are not forget that this is Sunday. You are thanking to your instagram, twitter and pinterest cause they spend the time with you. You look at your colleague, she sleeps on the chair after trying to put powder and light make up on her face. She said that she hasn’t bathed because Sunday is the time when her body is going to be so so slow. One hour later, they ask you to come and discuss what they want for only….15 minutes!. Then you are going home in the evening with a thought that your Sunday will be over soon. Days later, you have some meetings with those politicians like always, they will make you wait for them. The worse part of those is the meeting will be held in the evening plus you will have waiting moment in every meeting. And the worst part of it is the fact that you’ll go home late with a fuckin’ crazy traffic until you reach home by 10 pm. Like six times. In the end, you work the event out, so you should thanking to yourself.

Second.

Another day, you spent your whole day from nine to six in the office. Some of your deadlines finally done. In the night you have to work for another event, it’s not really big but quite exhausting. After you spent twenty hours in the venue with some crazy challenges, eating only once, then you can smile that you’ve done another project. You can go home, take a bath, and sleep. You come back being a normal man just for twelve hours. You have an idea to go to see another event that your colleague has done it last night. It seems like you can go home but you can’t, oh did I mention this one is on the weekend?. Your boss call you on the phone that you have to come back to look at her church decor. It’s a small decor but you suddenly realise that you will spend a night when you see four tents, four hundred chairs, and forty tables by 8 pm. You don’t have a choice but you have to finish it. Until you look at your wrist watch, the longer clockwise stay at number 2. In the morning. You feel so sleepy and hungry. You left the church.

You come back home and find that you just have cold milk and chocolate in the fridge. There is small left over goodies you can cook but damn it’s 2 am. You choose to lay your body on the bed, put your headsets in your ears, setting up three different times for alarm in your iPhone. You think that you’re not gonna be late to wake up again by 5 am. You know it’s Sunday, by 5 am you wake up, take a toothbrush and toothpaste with zombie sleepy eyes. You try to gather your spirit again to wake up, your brain feel a bit dizzy, very cold morning, cold milk and chocolate from three hours ago couldn’t help you from starving. Thank God you have a driver that is ready on time to drive you to the venue so you do not need to worry for being late. You spend for six hours to transform a little space inside the mansion that owned by one of the richest African man in the world (he’s #5 on this list). You come back home with a smile that the client is happy. You are happy as well cause you still have a half of your Sunday.

***

Those two stories had happened on me last month, and some ‘sunday-i-still-work’ lately. If you are a reader of this blog, you’ll easily guess and predict that I’ll give myself a reward. If you do, you are so true, and the gift for me is…..an iPhone 6! :) *dancing-hula-hula*.

OopsIDidItAgainI took decision to change my iPhone 5 after a year (remember this post? :P) with an iPhone 6. Why it’s not 6+? Big no no for bigger iPhone, I still love handy phone (ssst, I know Alice Gao is using 6+, though :P). I ordered the white one since I had two iPhones in black before but sadly, when the iPhone arrived in the office, I had two choices, black or gold. Gold? definitely out of the question. I was a bit dissapointed cause I have black again but that’s fine. Maybe, I just can’t stay away from dark color :).

Oh dear, I’m not realise that I’m writing a novel for this blog :P. I hope you don’t mind if I share these (my fav) images from my former iPhone 5 (even some of you have seen them in my instagram).

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A sharper camera on iPhone 6 will make me busier in front of my food either if I have an eat-out time or a fancy breakfast at home :). Sure.

P.S. ‘hello Six!) above is taken with iPhone 6+, nope, I don’t have two, I asked my flatmate to take the scene. For sure, I directed him how he should find the angle by standing on top of our dining table with his iPhone :)).

Happy Friday!

Just wanted to share these pretties here to brighten up Friday. I’m in the middle of some deadline yet couldn’t resist to cheat for seconds to upload these ranunculus. And now, I have to come back again to work some hanging concepts out. Well, just got an info that I’ll have a meeting this Sunday. Sunday? sigh.

Let me enjoy the result of this impromptu iPhone shot right now. Happy Friday!

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Shadow Play

I looked at my January posts and realised it was not a good start for this blog. I jumped, and jumped then stopped at the fourth post. Terrible.

Right now I’m looking at ‘me time’ after a ‘hellish’ past week, even though I’m in the middle of hectic week. Watching new movies at cinema (even I always fall sleep, always), grabbing new cups (or maybe stainless salad spoons), cooking prawns with some Japanese mushrooms, or being sluggish this Sunday, those are my options.

Or getting a sharper iPhone camera, so that every time I find beautiful light falls on beautiful objects and create beautiful shadows, my photos are more ‘blog-worthy’. Hmm, how about iPhone 6? :).

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All taken by iPhone 5.

An Ode To Beauty

Two things bothering me right now are mouth ulcer (plus something wrong with this throat, sigh) and massive laziness for this blog. The last one is more dangerous I know.

I’ve been trying to continue writing some personal posts yet always and always fail. I do not have an idea why. Instead, just want to share these images I took long time ago. At least, looking at them make me feel better for second from some stress because of deadlines and upcoming events. Just hoping that everything will be okay.

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Mexicola

It is a bad thing every time I try to write something and ended with nothing, lately. Even I had more normal days in this December it didn’t help much to update this blog. I hope you guys don’t mind for a throwback a bit to Bali.

On my fourth day in Bali, I and Sohib had no plans to spend the day until I decided to take a short peek to Motel Mexicola. It started when I posted my lunch in Ubud with Andhi and Sohib on my Instagram. Putri, my kind mate commented and asked me if I had visited Mexicola, one of the happening place in Seminyak where you can find so many cool peeps. Since I didn’t have plans that day, I thought I had to visit and see what was happening.

In the morning (I think it was 11am), we only needed five minutes from our cheap hotel to Mexicola. First impression I had was oh wow. First thing that took my attention was Mexican beautiful tiles on the bar and interesting sculpture made from melted candles. As we entered inside, I could feel the Mexican culture from the vibes, colors play everywhere, strong catholic ornaments, loung-ish Mexican music, all of that made me thought like achieve we just landed in Mexico. The vibe reflects the complexity of the Mexico’s history through the blending of indigenous cultures and the culture of Spain. Here are some pictures I took from my iPhone and mirrorless that day (pardon for some selfies!).

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I realised that Mexicola is a ‘hits’ spot in Seminyak after fifteen minutes we were there where I found so many cool kids and typical tourists mingling around, chatting, taking pictures and selfies (oh well). We spent approximately one and half hour after took some tacos and exotic drink. I found that Sohib didn’t feel snug with the vibe (well, he’s not a cool kid definitely :P) and said that Mexicola wasn’t “him” at all. Me neither but I was thrilled with the fact that Mexicola such a good place to learn about Mexican interior and exterior. For a person who works everyday playing with concept for themed events, interior and graphic, Mexicola is definitely a beautiful space to sharpen eyes.

I was so happy could capture Mexicola in day light before we headed to Ku De Ta for a sunset. If you guys want to feel the Mexican vibe stronger, you should come in the evening to enjoy the Mexican food and the vibe just like this.

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Fyi, Mexico is one of my dream country to visit if I have a chance to travel to South America someday. I find there is a romantic hispanic vibe that Mexico has that makes me think it would be great to spend weeks there. Wondering along the beautiful cathedrals, traditional markets, street dance, city hall, the people and for sure, the food. I’m not a fan of this boy band but truly, this v clip made me fell in love with Mexico City from the first time I watched it on MTV. Can I resist to lingering around the city hall with that beautiful sunset light in Mexico City? :)

Last one, Merry Christmas to those who are celebrating!

Just Some Pretties

Right here, I’m sitting down and watching Burberry Prorsum Story on FTV while my mind is rushing for ideas. In the other hand, I’m trying to restore my mind on track after two crazy days for a big event. There was so many challenges that made me (like always) couldn’t be so relaxed for day and night. But in the end everything was okay.

I know there is no correlation between pictures I want to share on this post with the story above. But I think these pretties can brighten up my December :))

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P.S. For all stress I’ll always have on this job, may I dream for one of Burberry Prorsum trench coat? Someday… :) *I’m dreaming again*.

Food Collage via iPhone

I think one of the best thing from Instagram is how the account looks. I always love how beautiful pictures are nicely arranged in square, particularly gorg account from Instagram stars like Alice Gao (I know it isn’t a secret that I’m her big fan of Alice’s rad works!), Pei Ketron (another brilliant one!), or Aiala Hernando. Not only every time I see through my iPhone, on the website, those squares tell so many stories about them. Especially for Alice Gao, every time she uploads food photos, I’ll stop for seconds to observe the taste of food (by air, obviously), the composition, the lighting and the angle.

Taking food photos has become my biggest indulgence right now. Every time I cook or having a brunch in a cafe, I always try to take photos of it (yes, taking photos first then I’ll eat them). Food photography via iPhone or mirrorless of mine are taken mostly from above. I can’t lie it is the best angle. My friend told me that the top angle doesn’t need photography technic but composition. I don’t really agree, I mean, even composition play is more needed, there is technic on how to capture the food.

Because I always depend on natural light, breakfast is the best time to snap my food. Sometimes I’ll have a plan ‘plan’ to snap but sometimes it’s an impromptu. You might have seen most of my breakfasts below on my account yet I personally couldn’t resist to post them on this blog. All are taken with my iPhone5 weeks ago (even, sometime a year ago).

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I can’t lie that seeing my breekies above is such a simply joy for me :). Hope you guys do not mind for some of recent breakfast scenes taken last week and this week. My fav time was the one with croissants and a bowl of rainbow :).

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