Kintamani, A place to remember

Kintamani is the most favorite tourist destinations in Bali with the active volcano of mount Batur and beautiful lake. We were told by our tourist guide Madhey that Kintamani which was famous for its captivating atmosphere were surrounded with six ancient villages around cauldron of Batur Lake. The local people hailing from these Bali Age villages preserves the unique culture and life style of Bali till today. The Balinese heritage is something to be admired and treasured. A beautiful culture that keeps me and my hubby, Raj fascinated to listen more about the distinct cultural practices that our tourist guide narrates from time to time.

Kintamani is located at the north of the Bali Island. Madhey drove us up all the way to view the volcano Mount Batur while relishing our lunch treat in one of the restaurant named 'Grand Puncak Sari'.

The Grand Puncak Sari Restaurant is located about 700 meters from the entrance of Kintamani. The beauty of the restaurant lies in the dining concept which offers open air atmosphere as well as closed ambiance sitting. The lunch was a buffet style whereby I and Raj enjoyed it while admiring the panorama of Mount Batur volcano. We didn’t get the open air sitting facing the landscape so we decided to battle with fork and spoons inside the restaurant. However, we grabbed a cup of freshly brewed Balinese coffee and dash out to the open area to catch a glimpse of the scenic. Indeed it has magnificent view of Mount Batur undeniably. Awesome!

Savoring the magnificent view while having your lunch

It was one of the little blessings that I experienced together with my love of life. Hot and rich aroma of coffee ignites my senses and tantalizes my feelings of serenity for a moment. I must say the Balinese Coffee gets thumbs up for its exotic taste. The weather at Kintamani is cool with temperature about 23°C. The chilly breeze gave a refreshed spirit for us both to embark on our next journey. Indeed I could barely walk away from that place. It took my breath away.

Source: BayBali.com

 I can imagine how nice if we put a night at the hotel here. Besides savoring in the cool atmosphere at night, there must be other exciting activity to look out for. I and Raj captured few shots of the gorgeous Mount Batur and Lake Batur while still fixated with lingering thoughts and view of the volcano. We were still eager to find better view of the volcano and Madhey took us to another point to get few snapshots of it. This time, we were close to the lake somehow and we could see villages bordered the area.We both told ourselves that we should return to this place someday. A beautiful magnum opus of God.

You don't look like married!

Yes, you don’t believe that I am married, aren’t you. I’m sure you didn’t. Are married women likely to look differently init?It is by practice that the wedding emblem should be carried by the women in the form of sindoor (red vermillion known as kumkum) and mangalsutra or thali. I wonder does anyone ever discern the wedding ring on the men. I find it rather unfair that people around you are so inquisitive to find out your marital status, if the girth of your waist doesn’t show up. Does it matter to them?

Over the couple of months, I have occasionally forgotten to wear the sindoor which always irate my mom. Obviously my mangalsutra is not flaunt due to safety reasons but at all times it has to be worn. It is not intentionally to conceal my marital status. It is not about fashion either. I have put on some extra pounds since I got married almost 3 months ago, but it wasn’t that obvious that most people haven’t noticed it! And therefore, I get that line often, “But you don’t look like married!” Not that I’m not trying to look single, but I don’t think I need to look married either. I mean, if you know me you would know I’m married and if you don’t, how does it matter to you?

I must say I have the privilege to look single which eventually is a sign of youth. Perhaps the nature of my personality and with the figure I am blessed with, it serves as a boon to me. My mom and aunt keep reminding themselves that, “Nisha is married” all the time. To them, I am always their little girl. No people! I am not bragging but it is just a pleasure to feel good about myself. Even then, I am defeated by few of my colleagues whom are married with a child but can afford to look like a teenager! Holy god!

The quizzical look I get when I say, I’m married is just enough for me to secretly feel excited. Don’t tell I have to carry a banner with me affirming that I’m married since I don’t look like one. What raise my curiosity, is there any defined attributes for married ladies to look like? Usually the expansion of women waist circumference and sloppy image inevitably scream out about our marital status. But why no one ever bothers a man whether he’s married or not. Does it make a difference? I think this is simple habituation of human mind to expect women to be in a certain way. I have my tongue in cheek, so you needn’t worry about me ever really doing that!

I think I have the genes that sustain the younger look in my family. If you have seen my dad and mom both in early sixties and late fifties respectively, still fairly look young (they don’t look haggard and too old). Hope I will carry their genetic factor and enjoy the gift. It’s becoming a requisite in younger couples to maintain their beauty regime and being a benchmark to look good even after married. Certainly, being married doesn’t mean that you have to give up on your looks. In the long run, it affects the marriage life for us.

My husband has been working out austerely in the health club that he recently enrolled right after our wedding. He has been hitting the gym and pool every single day till he has shed down on his visceral fat deposits around his waist. Trust me; I am in love again with my hubby. He looks dashing, man! This ultimately fortifies our bond and keeps alive the love that we share. I am up for my beauty and health regime to look attractive like the very first time he fell in love with me.

As a modern age woman, I would strongly adhere to certain principles of life indoctrinated with a dose of moral compulsion for me to be respected and appreciated. Yet, this does not single out women to be treated differently than men. If I am married, so be it then! It doesn’t have to be sensationalized to others. As long as my husband knows I am fulfilling my role as a wife and my family understands my capability to take care of my married life, this is all that matters. The rest is just insignificant.

IKEA is taking the worldwide by storm

Ever heard of the IKEA phenomenon amongst city dwellers in KL? The IKEA craze is widespread indoctrinating us with their concept of modern yet trendy, handy yet eye-catching, environmentally-friendly. It carries on Swedish home furnishing tradition to the next level. IKEA product range captures the fine touch of Swedish heritage. The novelty of the theme is reflected in the colors and substances used. These light, bright living spaces with unique designs create the sensation of reliving the vivid atmosphere in your home. In fact, the website of IKEA states that one of the best ways to describe the Swedish home furnishing style is to describe nature - full of light and fresh air, yet restrained and unpretentious.
The concept of IKEA store originated from a small part of southern Sweden called Smaland by Ingvar Kamprad. Many people associate Sweden with a fresh, healthy way of life. The heart of IKEA approach is to observe low prices but quality not compromised for the sake of profit (since Sweden is famous for their reliability and quality and hence IKEA takes the pride in offering the substance in all range of their products). But not everyone is so enamored of IKEA.
Do you shop there? Are you in love for their products? Do you hate it...and shop there anyway? Can you resist the lure of the Swedish concept? I would easily spell out the answers to the questions above. Frankly speaking I am not fancy of most IKEA products although some of their items are relatively trendy and unique. Have you really analyzed whether the famous retailer’s products are really sustainable while making all of these easily tangible products? And to make things worse, it is not cheap too. Then what makes it so attractive for shoppers to be crazy of IKEA products?
IKEA store conceptualization is to drag you through the showroom maze whilst tantalizing you to impulse shop, then further intoxicate you with cafe food, and confound you with ambiguous signage, all in the hopes you'll spend more of your hard-earned salary there. It just a waste of our time being in there. I go there just to get some innovative ideas on how to personalize my own home interior design. Trust me it helps! So simple ideas with own creativity with a free walkthrough their gallery will help to create a better everyday life at home with comfort.
I will tell you that I do still shop at IKEA but I am more prudent in my shopping spree. There are some plastic wares for your kitchen, bedroom and living hall items that is reasonable even though the quality is compromised. But it has everything that I need to fit the convenient and small space of my home. At the end of the day, I still get to decorate my home with finishing touches from IKEA products (Shh..last sunday I did my hunt at IKEA for some items to complete my home).
So what is behind the craze of IKEA phenomenon? You can tell me how you got enticed with their attractive garden concept, perfectly designed kitchen, comfortable sanctuary of living hall that gives you a sense of pleasure or the ambiance of your bedroom that absorbs you into dreamland.
Let's cut to the chase. Personally, it’s the brand consciousness that drives people to IKEA and a sense of pride to say, “I got this at IKEA” only expecting to raise the eyebrow of your listener! Hah-hah. Otherwise it is no big deal to me. I prefer to be a smart consumer where I mix n match my household items from different stores as long as the quality is not compromised.

Moving is fun!

Moving is not something that we love doing. It comes with careful planning and execution of your moving schedule effectively. It is like a dream come true when you have a new house. A new home also means that you have to move all your things from the old house to the new one. This was a challenge for us. We had to choose which ones are really needed and have to be moved. The rest of those other things should be sold or dumped. It will give a brand new start and ambiance in the new home. The first memory of our new home was filled with happiness! It can be a fun experience too! Actually it takes the right dose of attitude to make moving fun.
First things first, we have moved out successfully more or less and unpacking is in progress. Even though it can be exhausting, it gives a sense of rejuvenation. New atmosphere, new life and new furniture! It’s simply exciting! While unpacking, we tend to come across with some little surprises that sure to make us smile. Little cards, favorite stationeries, memorable gift from loved ones and other treasures that sure to excite our feelings.

What I love about moving house is I get to replace my old furniture and design the interior décor and layout with my own taste. Ever since we moved in I made lists of things to be purchased from IKEA. IKEA has fancy little items for your room and kitchen. However, I prefer getting my furniture at specialized furniture gallery which has better quality and design. Furniture’s at IKEA are not worth the buy! I spent about 120 bucks to furnish my room and kitchen with miscellaneous items.

Moving is a time to bond with loved ones and sit together to arrange the new home with understanding and love. You have to put all the things and furniture tidily.At the end of the day, the new home is filled with love, care and peace. I enjoy this moving spree and another moving fling is expected to take place a year from now I believe. A new home and a new spirit! I love March so much for rebranding my monotonous life.

Memoirs de Wedding

I realize I haven’t really talked about the wedding here. I talked about the days ahead of wedding and about the honeymoon, but nothing about the wedding. And I bet you’re thinking “I feel totally curious!” and you should (maybe for those who love to snoop and gossip about it). But the only reason I’m not talking about it yet is because I was waiting for my photos and video footage of it. Furthermore, I have been trying to evoke the sweetest thing about the wedding and keep the memories alive. It brings me close to tears at times (just emotionally touched) as I missed every little bits and pieces of my wedding right up to my honeymoon.
Just 2 weeks after wedding, I received all my photographs (except video recording from my aunt’s video cam) and made up my mind not to go public to the world. I spent huge bucks on the photography for engagement ceremony, actual day, reception and also my pre-wedding photo shoot. It turned out so beautiful which will be engraved in our hearts forever. So, once I got hold of the portraits, I chose to just furnish a glimpse of it to my social network. Just a splash here and elsewhere and tell you what happened. And you will laugh and you will cringe and you will look forward to your next wedding where you are a bride/groom and to be sure to pose naturally for the camera. Not the fake up at the front in the overly fancy clothes. Lemme tell ya, its fun to get back all the pictures and sit in circles to watch and shoot comments for every single picture. Ha-ha!! Also to reminisce the little flaws and candid moments that articulated such an expression in each one of us. I must say I love the candid shots more than anything.
Let’s roll back to my wedding reminiscence, How did that happen?! What I really wanted to say was: yesterday I was glancing through the reception photographs and our first dance song came on across my mind, and it totally floored me with how much it shake me up. And I don’t even remember our first dance all that much! But that moment, it gets me to relive that second. All credits goes to Selva, our down-to-earth master of ceremony and Adel, the vivacious Salsa queen. They both coaxed us to do the first dance right after our grand walk down to the pre-cocktail lounge. The next thing, I was blinking nervously to both of them and mustered up my cluttered mind to tell them that I don’t know what kind of steps do we need to dance and for how long? Seeing my uneasiness, Adel and Selva pacify me that it is going to be very short and simple steps. A sudden joy sparkled in my eye saying, “Why don’t I give it a try?” After all it is our night of glitz and glam, and we are the star of the night. I started to feel excitement fizzing up within me. It was fun to have Selva and Adel to coach both of us for the first dance. So I thought I would share it here. Just a bit of our wedding, Raj and I on the dance floor, twirling slowly (if you can do such a thing) and for a minute, feeling like we were alone. (Btw Adel was standing behind the piano with her smile while throwing me with some hand gesture that I need to remember. Ha-ha-ha. Thanks dear. You were of great help and made it more worthwhile).
The wedding was simple and sweet inclined by enriching Indian traditions. Every little facet of it reflected on our cultural practices. The food, the décor, and the flow of event looked…it was all justpurrrrfect! Everything went through well by grace of God. Here are a few of the memorable shots of the actual wedding ceremony, and exclusive twist of a very elegant reception. A precious moment that will be remembered till eternity.

Facebook a boon or a curse?

Facebook is a great gizmo to keep up with family and friends, share information, ask for advice, keep others posted about what is happening in your life and learn what is happening in other people’s lives when we don’t call everyday. Usually, Facebook makes reconnecting easier with family and friends that live far away. While Facebook can have heap of affirmative facets, there are also hitch that it comes with. More often than not, Facebook leads to numerous alarming social dilemmas.

I had always thought Facebook to be harmless social milieu where you get to keep in touch with your family and friends. "It's just Facebook; do you think can it really cause many problems in a relationship? This may come as no surprise to regular users of Facebook.
Facebook users have grown over the years and if we are not careful, it can spin off a wide gamut of problems starting from privacy invasion to ignite the fire of jealousy. At the end of the day, Facebook itself isn't to blame for the downfall of relationships. Instead, it's an avenue by which we should see Facebook for what it is; a great way to be in contact with family and friends.

Now, Facebook jealousy is a new trend that leads to netizen feeling insecure with their public lives when they try to match up to their own life with their family and friends as displayed on the social milieu. I learned about this early on when I was awaken by this uncanny truth. Living in this information eon, we are now in vulnerable circumstances whereby the information practically comes to you. All you have to do is log into site. The shout out on the wall, the tagged pictures, and the post that shares your personal lives might potentially elicit feelings of envy. I feel Facebook has made our lives stood still and leaving us in danger of too much publicity.

Today when I sat down to pen down this note, it raised a question in me which left me baffled. This is not the first time I am stirred up from my senses about the Facebook envy that sparked amongst my circle of acquaintances (funny right? Looks like I have a life that is so fascinating, zesty and full of life that can transform my Facebook ‘connections’ to be green-eyed monster).

In short, Facebook has become yet another avenue for you to weigh up yourself against others. It has become so easy with just a click away to pry into the lives of others that makes you want to keep up with theirs. The more time people spent on the social networking site, they more jealous they get by seeing snippets of other people’s personal lives on Facebook. So it could be the starting point for propagating jealousy.

The golden rule of Facebooking is that in life, you shouldn't be doing anything that you wouldn’t want to strip your privacy away and make your life a slave to virtual platform. Facebook isn't usually the problem. It's the behaviors that are the problem. Before we shoot blatant accusation on Facebook vulnerability and horrible curses to Mark Zuckerberg on the dawn of privacy invasion, just wait. The envy gene could be residing in your genetic blueprint. So it’s you and not Facebook entirely the root cause of all problems.
A mere public display of your personal life as in the cars that you drive, the vacations you go, the dream career that you have, the love of family, friends, spouse that you’re blessed with, the beautiful life that you’re savoring and even the fame and social echelon that you’re living in is simply enough to spark jealousy. This will turn the virtual networking into battles of ego. Sometimes the jealousy inflicted people may cross their boundary by posting imprudent messages, misinterpreting a wall post of another, judge their character through their shout out etc etc. In a nutshell, we never really know what is going on with other people and we can’t judge exactly what their relationship is like. Poking our noses over a picture and commenting on their integrity is nothing but inviting for trouble.
Facebook is meant to reinforce relationship, share information, and keep in touch with all our acquaintances in at every corners of the world. So let’s not fall off far from the concept. In order to evade jealousy in their life, retire from Facebook, get a life for good! It might sound strange but Facebook is addictive, and it can keep calling you back. So keep your thoughts sound and sane. There is more to life than staring pointlessly at FB wall and strategizing your dirty tactics. Get a life folks!

Can you mind your own business?

I am about to write something that drives me mad occasionally (or more often lately). I have never been able to comprehend why some people simply loves to get in the way of other people’s business. I don’t get the point of them being so prying into people’s affair. Does it really matter how I found my husband before we tie the knot? It does not. If you don’t like me just because I am far better than you, that’s too bad. Big deal. I don’t need this nonsense by the way. Is it any of their business to tell me their opinion or to interfere in my life? No. It is my life and I make the decision and of course it’s still none of your business if you’re just doing all this out of envy.
The world is full of deceitfulness, egocentric and perversion. Whatever jargon you come with, I don’t care. All I care is I have a bunch of great friends, close-knit of real genuine family members and I like them all. Maybe I would consider their counsel. The rest who are not in my list can keep their two cents worth for themselves. Really, it’s none of my business how you think.
My experience of people telling me to further my studies by their strong suggestion on which field of academic I should opt for, what I should do for a living or what car I should drive around is nothing but silly, selfish, and a sign of jealousy. It makes me think you’re not all that secure or confident about your own choices. Worship however you please – or not. Drive any kind of vehicle you want. Find a life partner for your children, scrutinize your own family moral obligation before you pass remarks or criticism onto others. It’s none of my business what you do or think. But the moment you trespass into my territory, I can make you regret by showing the ugly picture of your life.
Oh dear. Speaking of discrepancy – that’s really the only thing I despise. Do what you want. Let others do the same. Live your own life, and don’t throw stones unless you’re perfect, yourself. That would, of course, be nobody. They can be good at few things but I don’t think they are master of all trades to judge my capabilities.

All these while, I have been silently absorbing these sneers. Had I not been so polite I might have given them a piece of my mind (occasionally I can be blunt), but I don't think I would be quiet all the time. Over the years, I have grown up experiencing this shameful attitude and I know at my worse, I can be blatantly rude. My parents thought me to be courteous but
I told them at times I need to step out of my courtesy veil to put a stop to this gibberish.

When I hear these people still go all-out to poke their noses into our life, I thought to myself, “What a shame these people don’t have a life possibly or maybe they simply can’t be happy with their own lives’. Amusingly they don’t feel ashamed ever and it makes me salute them for taking huge effort to still stick their nose into our butts. Probably it is just the way they are born and that’s what these guys are best at.

I don’t think it is that difficult to be happy and busy with their life. All they need to do is “MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS”

Now I know why the traffic is better

Apparently its school holidays now. Well, no wonder I was surprised to see the traffic flow is fairly smooth than usual. I used to leave the house for work at 7am and end up getting wedged in the traffic jam caused by the peak school hours. The road I am taking to hit the highway has a few schools and a market which daily gets me sitting there in jam for about 30 minutes. Its rush hour for parents sending their kids to school, teachers making their way to work and also other office employees like us battling through the congestion just to reach their office in time.

At times, school holidays do something good for office employees like me by making our lives to commute to work with so much of ease (but it's not always the case, at times school holidays can worsen the traffic too).

Today I reached office earlier than usual. And I am in pleasant mood despite not having good sleep last night, even before I’ve had my morning coffee. I am just keeping my fingers crossed to have a jam-free drive back home today after office hours.

I just hope KL-Seremban Highway will be smooth after work hours today!