My Expressions

2nd anniversary

2008-03-06T21:08:00.004+10:00

Yesterday was my 2nd wedding anniversary. Me and my husband celebrated it with a special menu for the dinner. We did not have any chances to dining outside since it was a busy day for both of us, but we still could manage to have dinner together at home.

We prepared special dishes for the dinner, roasted lamb-mashed potato-steamed vegies, a Western style dish. This was the prove of a good corporation between husband and wife. I marinated the lamb with special ingredients, while my husband roasted it in the oven. He also boiled the potatoes then I mixed them with milk and butter. After that, we prepared the veggies together. We enjoyed the food as it taste so delicious but more importantly, it was spread with love. Although it was not a candle light dinner, as we did not have any candles left..:).. it was still romantic with the sound of love songs as the music background.

In this 2nd year of our marriage..we have learned lots of things. Sharing to and understanding each other, more joys and happiness..but we realise that there are still much more things to learn ahead to keep our marriage happily ever after. Happy anniversary to us !!

Lunch together

2008-02-23T19:08:00.006+10:00

I had friends visiting my house this weekend, so I made a special dish for lunch. It's called coto Makassar, a traditional dish from my hometown. It's a spicy meat soup and eaten with lontong-traditional rice dish. All of us enjoyed the lunch as we all were hungry after traveling from other places. Yummy..yummy.... The dessert was an Indonesian style of fruit cocktail with rose syrup and ice cubes, sooooo fresh to fill the thirsty throat in the very hot Saturday afternoon.

City sight seeing

2008-02-23T18:59:00.006+10:00

Today I went to the city centre to meet friends from my hometown, Makassar, Indonesia. We spent sometimes in CBD and took pictures in some interesting places. My friends are attending Public Health Leadership training at Griffith University. I went by train to the central station and met them at the ANZAC square, the war monument. We took some pictures there. Then we walked along the road to another beautiful spot, Brisbane Square. We took a picture with the Casino as the background. Although the temperature was very hot, around 40 Celsius degrees, everyone kept smiling and enthusiastic to spent this weekend together. From CBD we continued the journey to the main campus of University of Queensland, my university, at St. Lucia. We traveled by bus. We also took some pictures there at the nice spots. What a beautiful weekend!!

News of the month

2008-02-22T10:35:00.004+10:00

Indonesian minister accuses West of 'exploiting' bird flu

A man passes a chicken displayed in a market in Medan, Indonesia. Bird flu killed a three-year-old boy and a teenager at the weekend, bringing the country's death toll to 104.
Photo: AP

Mark Forbes, Jakarta
February 20, 2008

INDONESIAN Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari claims the United States and World Health Organisation are part of a global conspiracy to profit from the spread of bird flu, and the US may use samples to produce biological weapons.

The views of Dr Supari, outlined in her new book, It's Time for the World to Change, threaten to undermine efforts to control the spread of avian influenza and prevent it becoming a global pandemic.

Indonesia is the new hot spot for the virus, with recent deaths raising the local toll to 104, nearly half the world's total.

Despite claims by Dr Supari — described on the book's cover as the "divine hand behind avian influenza" — that she has forged a new agreement to share virus samples and allow all nations access to resulting vaccines, Indonesia still blocks the sharing of samples from human victims.

Inquiries by The Age reveal the ban has been widened to include samples from chickens, which are infected across Indonesia. More than 200 have not received export permits to be sent to an Australian laboratory for analysis.

Tracking the spread of the virus and its mutations is essential to guard against it jumping into human communities on a larger scale, experts say.

In her book, Dr Supari says WHO laboratories forwarded influenza viruses to Western companies so they could profit by selling vaccines back to developing countries. "The system of world health management has been very exploitative," she says. "It has been controlled by inhumanly (sic) desires, based on the greediness to raise capital and to control the world."

Some Indonesian samples were sent to a US Defence Department laboratory, Dr Supari says. She says she had to act because "some of our seed viruses had been in a laboratory known as a facility developing biological weapons in a superpower country".

Privately, foreign experts and officials say Dr Supari's belief that she is engaged on a God-driven crusade against an evil and "neo-colonialist" world health system have caused her to lose touch with reality.

Compromise solutions to ensure vaccines are shared are being ignored, they say.

International officials are dismayed that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appears to have endorsed the book, writing its introduction.

Flying in the face of the facts, Dr Yudhoyono supports Dr Supari's claim that the spread of the virus is under control in Indonesia, stating that the "occurrence rate and the number of affected areas are decreasing".

WHO refused to comment on the book or the virus-sharing stand-off. A spokesman said: "This matter is a sensitive case at present."

No US officials were available for comment. They are believed to have protested, resulting in the book being withdrawn from sale almost as soon as it was released last week. Few copies were sold, but the publisher said the Government-funded book would be available again soon.

In it, Dr Supari says Indonesia's bird flu victims did not die in vain: "They all died as martyrs of humanity for the betterment of the world health management."

She also alleges WHO's virus-sharing system exploits the blood, cells and antibodies of the powerless. "And perhaps it would be more dangerous when in the end they would take our brain cell(s) as well, to be re-engineered and create a new generation of slaves."

My 1st article in Panyingkul

2008-02-18T16:30:00.007+10:00

It has been quite long time not to fill in this blog. Nothing so special coming up since the start of February, just dealing with my daily activities, houseworks, and of course those related with my study program. But today when I opened one of my favourite link, I saw my article has been published there. It's about the book fest in Brisbane that I posted in this blog last month, but in Indonesian version coz the website is for Indonesian people. I am happy about that coz finally it get published after waiting for days in wondering.
You can find the article in this link http://panyingkul.com/view.php?id=733&jenis=kabarkita but of course you have to understand Indonesian first :)

How do you find your true love?

2008-01-19T21:05:00.000+10:00

Love isn't always a lightning bolt. Maybe sometimes it's just a choice. Maybe true love is a decision. A decision to take a chance with somebody. To give to somebody. Without worrying whether they'll give anything back. Or if they're gonna hurt you, or if they really are the one. Maybe love isn't something that happens to you. Maybe it's something you have to choose. (Memorable quotes from the movie, Love and Other Disaster, 2006).

I absolutely agree with these quotes as It happened in my real life. I made a decision that brought me to my true love.

Think carefully before asking questions

2008-01-17T14:54:00.000+10:00

The mother thought her daughter should have a comprehensive checkup before starting kindergarten. She made an appointment with an eminent psychologist to examine the youngster for any possible abnormal tendencies. Among the questions, the man of science asked, "Are you a boy or a girl?" "A boy," the little girl answered. Somewhat startled, the psychologist tried again. "When you grow up, are you going to be a woman or a man?" "A man", the little girl answered. On the way home, the mother asked, "Why did you make such strange replies to what the psychologist asked?" In a serious tone, the little girl replied, "He asked such silly questions, I thought he wanted silly answers!" (Krueger & Casey, 2000)

Book Hunting

2008-01-13T19:13:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I went to the Biggest Book Fest in QLD. It's held by Lifeline, the charity organisation. Thousands of used books were available during the 5 days of the fest, from children collections, textbooks, references, adults, hobbies, art, until rare collection. Magazines and cd/dvds were also available. There were three sections, unpriced, priced, and high quality. The 1st section was the used books and magazines with low quality, meaning that might be some tears, or writings in the books. But all of the items in this section were not more than $2. The 2nd section was the used books with better quality than that available at the 1st one, hence, the price also varied from less than $1 to more than $2 depending on the subject of the book. The last section offered high quality, like very new condition. Even some books were still in plastic sealed. In this section, the price of the books varied from more than $4 to almost $15 but compared to the original price it was much much cheaper. No wonder, the Brisbane Convention Centre, the place where the book fest was held, was full with people from babies until elderly. It became a heaven for the hungry readers.

To add my library collection, the hunting started from the priced section then continued to the unpriced and finally ended at the high quality section. In total, i spent about $150 for almost one hundred items. what a bargain !! I got heaps of story books, learning aid books, and jigsaws for children. For adult collection i got psychology, health, photography, food magazines, and parenting education.

Photos by Arief Budiman

Another Delicious Lunch

2008-01-10T17:24:00.000+10:00

Today, I tried a recipe that my friend gave me. It's called dendeng balado a traditional dish from Padang, West Sumatra.
Thanks to Yessi..I made it although it's still little bit less delicious than yours, but for the 1st trial it's okay. Perhaps I should put more red chili to make it more spicy but my hubby can't stand with the hot food :(

Delicious Lunch

2008-01-10T17:16:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I cooked a mouth watering seafood dish for lunch. I used all the ingredients that I bought at Darra Market on last Saturday…calamari, water spinach (kangkung), tomato, chilli, etc. I ate it with warm rice..so delicious.

Here is the recipe..

Calamari & Water spinach Stir Fry

Ingredients:

500 grams calamari, cut into medium pieces

1 bunch of water spinach (kangkung), cut moderately

2 cloves of garlic, cracked

A half of big red onion, mince into small pieces

1 tomato, cut into small cubes

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

salt, added as required

2 bird eye chili (red small chili), for hot version

Procedures:

Heat the oil on a stir fry pan. Stir fry the onion, garlic, tomato, and chili until produce nice aroma. Put the calamari into the pan and stir gently until calamari mixed with the spices. Cover the pan with the lid and leave it for 3 minutes until the calamari turns to brown. Put the water spinach in and stir until mixed with calamari. Add a little water and cover the pan with the lid. After 3 minutes or the water spinach and calamari becomes tender, add the soy sauce and oyster sauce and stir gently until mixed with the whole dish. Turn of the stove and put the dish on the plate. Eat it with warm rice.

New Study desk

2008-01-10T17:13:00.000+10:00

Nothing was unusual yesterday except I got a new study desk from my beloved hubby. He bought me one from Officeworks, the discounted store for office appliances. It's much more comfy than my old desk..that actually not an original study desk :). Thanks honey..I'll study harder with this new desk.

Ayah and Hadith for this month

2008-01-10T17:09:00.000+10:00

"Indeed Allah has purchased from the Believers their lives and their wealth (in exchange) for that the Paradise is theirs." (Quran, Surah Tawbah, Ayah 111)

The Prophet Muhammed (s) said in an authentic hadith, "Three (traits) whoever has them finds the sweetness of Iman: that Allah and His Messenger be more beloved to him than anyone else, that he loves a person and does not love him except for Allah, and that he hates returning to Kufr after Allah has saved him from it just as he hates to be thrown into fire." [Bukhari and Muslim recorded it].

Busy Saturday!

2008-01-10T16:55:00.000+10:00

Last Weekend, full of planning was on the way…Successfully executed. Early morning under the mist and a little bit broken umbrella..I ran to catch the train with a full speed but empty stomach..”O Gosh only one minute left or I miss the train!!” Fortunately, I did it 22 minutes later I arrived at the destination..Darra Market. Then I started to check the shopping list and went for browsing to get what’s on the list. My heart was beating when I found my favourite fish that I missed so much for almost 2 years..and much more excited when I saw the price..soo cheap. After finishing with the seafood section, the hunting continued with the veggies and fruits. Again, lots of cheap and fresh stuff. I felt so excited and almost forgot the time..it has been two hours shopping!!..until my empty stomach started to rumbling. So, it has to be ended.

The train left the market to city..another shopping destination ;). Arrived at city, I went to the Indian restaurant to oder my favourite food..chicken biryani rice. My stomach was then filled up and stopped produce sounds I felt more energised and ready to go for another shopping schedule. I searched the items I need at Big W, Wollies, and other stores but could not find it, hmmm I need to go to the other shopping mall then. I decided to go back home first to put all the stuff and again by train and bus I went to Garden city shopping centre. Luckely, I found all the stuff I need there.

6 pm. arrived back at home and felt so tired at my feet but so satisfied in my heart “I’ll have a good sleep tonight”…

New year begins

2008-01-10T16:48:00.000+10:00

Photo by Arief Budiman (2007)

A new year begins, without a new year resolution but many hopes for more success in my study, marriage life, and my career.

New year eve celebration at South Bank Parkland with fully shining fireworks and little shower,, what a lovely evening in the coolest summer night in Brissie!!

1st path, one step ahead

2008-01-10T16:27:00.000+10:00

Photo by Arief Budiman (2007)

Brisbane, late evening

Little shower outside..wind is blowing slowly ..brings a cool atmosphere into my small but comfy castle. This is the first step in one of my journey paths. The man who has filled in my heart gives his contribution to build this path.