Ok so I found one detestful thing about travelling.

Compared to airports and airline lounges, there aren't many more mind-numbing places that I can think of.

Perhaps because it is filled with people on their way to someplace else, the vibe is often restless, and busy in a million directions but here. Add on the queues, luggage waiting and hauling and weird displaced hours that don't belong in a day, and the novelty of duty-free shopping quickly runs out.

But then again, how do you make more hospitable a place that is built for the sole purpose of getting out of?

Wild, Potent and Beautiful

• The Juanda airport, against the setting Surabaya sun and freshwater farms. Did you know that here, airports are called cities in the sky?
• Where the language is an upped ante, caffeinated version of Bahasa Melayu
• In Jakarta, where the local music scene is so alive, I realised what it means to have a local music scene that is alive
• Where the little bookstore in Soekarno-Hatta yielded Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, which I had been looking for
• Avocado juice, with deep brown streaks and pools of chocolate sauce

Indonesia - aku gembira kita bisa berkenalan.

The Sartorial Interview

Tagged by Afti Rusli.

*Job?
Corporate Auditor.

*Best sartorial advice from your parents?
Mum: "Don't dress like an aunty"
Dad: Bunyi cengkerik comes to mind....but probably "Why wear until like that?"

*Style icons
Kate Hudson

*Describe your personal style
Boho-chic

*I build my daily look around...
What I feel like in the morning

*Personal Style quirk
Accessories with sentimental value

*Favorite designers
Let's see - designers that strike a chord...Elie Saab, Zac Posen, Missoni, Monique Lhuillier, Christian and Jeffrey from Project Runway...

*Most cherished item
My grandmother's 5 gold bangles

*I feel best wearing?
Anything that makes me feel like I can walk straight into a photo shoot. Annie Leibovitz's, preferably.

*The first thing I look at in another Sartorialist’s outfit...
Shoes

*I always break this fashion rule...
Wear suits for work

*I never break this fashion rule...
Don't wear brown shoes with black bottoms

*Never caught wearing?
Earrings. Don't have holes!

*Most underrated item in menswear/womenswear?
Have to agree with Afti - undergarments is a good one

*Dress to impress who?
Myself

*Shine your own shoes?
Never bothered

*Favorite stores?
I ALWAYS walk into MNG at the airport, Naf Naf at the Curve, Dorothy Perkins at One U, Jaspal at Pavilion. Come hell or high weather.

*Your next “must have” purchase?
Bought them already. Black pointy patent leather shoes.

*I only buy __________ in Europe.
Don't know man. Haven't been there yet.

*I skimp when buying …
Branded goods.

*I splurge on…..
Shirts (whenever I find a nice one)

*Favorite item of clothing
Depends on the mood of the day

*Guilty pleasure
Probably shoes.

*Cologne, skincare
Cologne gives me a headache. Loccitane and Body Shop for skincare.

*Most stylish city (Milan, Paris, London, New York, other)
Define stylish. I think any city can be stylish.

*When I was in high school I wore?
Too many bad outfits.

*Sports?
Does Yoga count?

*Favorite fashion magazine?
InStyle.

*Favorite vacation spot?
Haven't got a particular one yet.

*Favorite neighborhood restaurant?
Dragon-I, Centrepoint.


Tag: Doubleaye, Faza, Jo-Ann.

Teeth

It has come to my attention today, that there are friends I did not know about who read this blog. Well, welcome, and hope you have come to stay.

Today, I will blog about a topic not particularly juicy, but interesting to me nonetheless.

If you make yourself really really small, like maybe half a cm tall, and stand on an adult human's lip, I guess teeth may seem something like the Stonehenge to you. Huge, old and immovable.

Imagine my surprise to find out that just like everything else, they rely on each other to stand, with balance pivoted on that point of leaning against the other. So when you take one away, like sleeping ogre children in a cot the adjacent ones wake up surprised, and rumble and grumble their way to making themselves heard.

Now imagine wiring them together and trying to pull them straight in a row.

Yes I just got braces put in. Not quite as traumatizing as I had imagined all these years, but not the most pleasant sensation either. Suffice to say that I am glad I waited for the right dentist, orthodontic options and ability to laugh at my own little scrapes to come along.

One day, I will tell you all about dentists’ nurses. Those ladies, who I usually find to be reserved with quiet compassion – they really have a good reason for that stoic expression. God bless their little souls for some of the literally twisted things they have had to see.

No matter how far your mind wanders, teeth decay if you don't brush them

Nick Hornby quotes Oscar Wilde in “A Long Way Down”, saying one’s real life is often the life one does not lead, and the one you do lead does not let you be who you thought you were.

I commiserate. When I was eight, I was convinced that I would have my own condo and car by 24. It was only recently that I acknowledged I would probably never sing live at a concert in front of a thousand fans, and more recently than should have been that I would never be an accomplished ice-skater.

One body, 24 hours in a day, and only 100% to give.

I used to think of these as limitations but really, they are the default tools everyone gets to shape their life with, then fill it.

Ironically, knowing your boundaries is the only way to stretch them, the same way having a cup with finite capacity is the only way it can runneth over. And if you do it right, you might just be that kind of person for whom ex-ex colleagues still band together for a hearty send-off when you leave the country.

Child, sibling, friend, traveler, worker. That is all I am. And that is plenty.

The Occasional Detour

I believe we all have our own paths to follow, and lessons to learn. For this reason, there is no point in envying or coveting, and in the same way showing up the next person.

I’m good with this concept, and most days live peacefully by it. But sometimes, there is just a need to step on over to that offensive someone's path and give him a tight slap in the face, before carrying on.

The Urgency of Transformation

"When faced with a radical crisis, when the old way of being in the world, of interacting with each other and with the realm of nature doesn't work anymore, when survival is threatened by seemingly insurmountable problems, an individual life-form or a species - will either die or become extinct or rise above the limitations of its condition through an evolutionary leap."

by Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth.


What a great paragraph. I have always been one for the leaping.