It was a gloomy afternoon in Balikpapan, but cheerful smiles and warm hellos from Starbucks baristas brightened up the ambience every time guests stepped into the coffee shop. “One Tall caramel macchiato, one hot Grande hazelnut cappuccino, one Cream Cheese Danish and one baked cheesecake, please,” I said to one of the baristas and exchanged pleasantries with him. After getting my order, I went to a table where my dad was sitting and handed him the steaming cup of hazelnut cappuccino.
I put my hands around the cup of caramel macchiato (my favourite) and smell the coffee aroma. I took a sip, let it linger in my mouth, and then let it coat my tongue as I identified the taste. As a coffee junkie, I enjoy good coffee so much that I don’t mind spending much on a cup of coffee that costs about $4 or approximately Rp 36.000,00. Some people probably say: “Who in their right mind would pay that much for a cup of coffee? Go make it at home!” I think I would agree with these people.
Nevertheless, some people would also pay a lot for booze – for example, someone would pay $229.99 for Johnnie Walker. Personally, I have an example of my own. I used to pay about $13 for one shot of tequila – and sometimes one shot led to another every time I was in the mood for booze-up or just trying to get a little bit tipsy. Then I asked myself: “Does it become commonplace to pay several hundred dollars for a bottle of Scotch Whisky?”
Okay, here is my opinion. Like clothes, what you buy or drink reflects who you are. It reflects different things about you depending on your current situation. It can make a direct statement to the society, whether it is affordable or not for you. How much money you have available to spend on a cup of coffee can also have an influence on what you end up buying to drink.
Some people may go to Starbucks and buy four-dollar coffee because they think they can enjoy a good cup of coffee there. Some people will just drink the expensive stuff to satisfy their curiosity due to the hype and fad of drinking Starbucks coffee. Or some people just want to be social climbers because they think there is a lot of prestige attached to sipping a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Everyone has their own personal reasons for buying expensive coffee and choosing where they buy it from.
Starbucks is not the only coffeehouse that serves great coffee. I would recommend a cheaper cup of hazelnut latte at Dunkin’ Donuts to accompany your donut of choosing. Dunkin’ Donuts also has a reputation for brewing high-quality coffee, making it a competitor to Starbucks. In Malaysia, Old Town White Coffee (the largest kopitiam restaurant chain in the country) offers a classic cup of white coffee that you should give a try.
If you happen to be in Indonesia, there’s a famous café opened first in 1991 in Jakarta (it is now open in more than 17 Indonesian cities, including Balikpapan) that comes highly recommended. If you are somebody who really enjoys iced coffee, this place can be perfect to experience a unique blend of coffee and other ingredients such as rum, ice cream, fruit juice and so on. When its tagline “When coffee is your lifestyle” caught my eye, I was thinking that millions of people around the world today drink coffee and drinking gourmet coffee has become part of the lifestyle. It seems like “coffee culture” – and it’s just a matter of deciding your price range and desired place.
So how do you like your coffee?
Source URL for the image above:mynameis88.blogspot.com
Some friends are remembered because of their smile. Some friends are remembered because of their style. But Joash Wee (Jo, his pet name) is always remembered for his friendship and kindness. He never could be short of friends.
It was a sunny morning with clear blue skies on Thursday, 17 June 2010. I woke up early, getting ready for my first time ever being an usher at a car show. My cell phone suddenly rang and it was my roommate calling about Jo’s car accident. My mind was flooded with questions: Is he all right? How did the accident happen? Where is he now? Once those questions popped into my head, my heart literally stopped and my jaw dropped as I heard he died in the accident.
I was just stunned – speechless. Everything seemed surreal suddenly. I still thought my roommate might have been pulling a prank until Jo’s roommate called me and told me all about the accident. “Jo is dead,” – those were the last words I heard on the phone that, I was thinking, would change my life forever. I called Jo’s phone, hoping he would answer the phone and tell me it was just a mischief. Nobody answered and I broke out into tears.
Jo and his family were on their way back home from the usual family vacation in Kuantan before their car collided with an oncoming trailer. The tragic accident killed five Wee family members, including Jo, his grandmother, his father and his two sisters. Both his mother and little brother survived, though badly injured.
Loads of people, including his classmates, teachers, friends and Christian fellowship nearly filled a large auditorium at Taylor’s University to commemorate the life of a 22-year-old bright student and to honour a friend whose life overflowed with love for everyone around him. He lived a life of complete unconditional love – love for God, love for his family, love for his friends and those he would meet for the first time.
There was no shortage of friends coming forward to share stories of the young man’s special ways and his love. Jo was indeed compassionate. He always thought of others before thinking of himself. He was also the kind of person you could talk to in a tough time. It brings to mind those heart-to-heart talks we used to have. He would always lend an ear every time I had problems with school and guys.
Jo was an enthusiastic person. He took a lively interest in almost everything – tennis, pool, books, music, writing and playing guitar. His guitar skills were honed well under painstaking hours of practice, strengthened by experiences of performing and serving the church. Our interest in music and alternative rock connected us to a close friendship. We ever went to concerts together and always wanted to get as close to the stage as possible.
Jo was also a friendly person to everyone. He would stop to say hi to you because you were his friend’s friend and someone he knew – or someone he just met. That made him more popular than an “it” guy.
Jo captured our hearts. He refuses to leave and will always be missed.
His smile never wavered.
Jo and me at the MTV World Stage 2009, Kuala Lumpur
P.S. This article was written to honour the memory of my good buddy, Joash Wee. You'll always be missed, Jo!
There’s a certain novelty value in fashion when having a totally starved look. There’s no denying that many models don’t mind starving themselves and suffering from severe hunger pangs just to appear on the runways and succeed in the modelling world; hence a want of a few Big Macs. Taken to extremes, this kind of behaviour can be dangerous and fatal.
A new study by the Model Health Inquiry, part of an investigation by the Baroness Kingsmill for the British Fashion Council, reports that one out of four models is coping with hidden eating disorders. The purpose of this study is to investigate the pressure on models to be size zero with “waif-like” body types, perhaps the most famous of these being Kate Moss, who becomes the same byword for “stick-thin” models as Twiggy from the 1960s. “The model population is classed at risk,” says Dr Adrienne Key, a psychiatrist who was involved in the report. “My assumption is that 20 per cent to 40 per cent are suffering from some kind of eating disorder or disordered eating.”
Zero-sized models have been in the limelight for being underweight before many of them are banned from catwalks. In that event, there is an air of expectation that the ban will change attitudes towards extreme model size requirements.
“Size-Zero” Victims
The deaths of three South American models, attributed to malnutrition and anorexia nervosa, sparked a heated debate on underweight “size zero” models around the world. In August 2006, 22-year-old Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos died from heart failure after she had been on a strict diet of green leaves and diet Coke for three months. It was rumoured that her modelling agency told her she could have won excessive fame if she had lost a tremendous amount of weight. However, it didn’t seem an earth-shattering achievement. She had collapsed on the catwalk during a fashion show in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo before she could catch the pleasant sweet smell of success.
Six months later, her sister Eliana Ramos, 18, also died of suspected anorexia and malnutrition. She had worked as a model for an Argentine modelling agency beforehand. A similar case also happened to Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston, 21, who had worked for Giorgio Armani. The model hit the headlines not only with her success in modelling but also with her controversial death, linked to complications from anorexia after sticking to a diet of just tomatoes and apples.
The photographs and stories of these fashion models consequently were splashed across the front pages of both online and print media around the globe. In the wake of their deaths, the World Health Organisation, doctors and designers started speaking out against the size zero fashion trend.
Size Zero in Women’s Measurement and the BMI Controversy
Size 0 is a women’s clothing size in the US catalogue sizes system. The measurement is equivalent to a modern UK size 4 — 31.5 inches (80cm) in bust, 23 inches (60cm) in waist and 34 inches (86cm) in hips. With a little imagination, you could turn the waist measurement into the average girth of a British eight-year-old girl.
When it comes to a question about size, there is always a question about health. Indeed, a measure of fashion model weight today raises several health issues. A body mass index (BMI) of 18.5 or lower is deemed “half-starved” or “underweight” by the World Health Organisation. This means a model measuring around 5ft 9in tall (170 centimetres) has to weigh a minimum 8st 11lb (52 kilograms) to be classed as healthy.
In the case of Reston, her BMI was believed to be below the critical 16 mark. She was 172cm tall and weighed only 38kg. According to a nutritionist and endocrinologist at Madrid’s fashion week Susana Monereo, a BMI of 16 was deemed “extremely low” that could make models look like stick figures draped in designer clothes.
A Ban on Ultra-Thin Models from Catwalks
A turning point in the debate on the size zero trend seemed more real. Prompted by the scandal of some models’ deaths, models with a body mass index (BMI) of less than 18 were barred from a major Madrid fashion show in September 2006 for being “excessively skinny”. Also, several large Italian designer brands such as Prada, Versace and Armani were in agreement about the ban on “size zero” models from their catwalks.
For some super-skinny supermodels such as Lily Cole, Erin O’Connor, Alek Wek and Eva Herzigova, banning “size zero” models could really mean taking the cake. They could possibly face a ban from the catwalk unless they started feeding themselves.
A spokesman for designer Allegra Hicks said, “A ban on the size zero model should be compulsory across the fashion industry. Size zero is not feminine and not healthy.” Nonetheless, the London Fashion Show seemed to prefer urging fashion designers to use healthy-looking women to following the lead taken by Madrid in a ban on “size zero” models from its catwalk.
The deaths of the Uruguayan and Brazilian models might come as a wake-up call to the fashion industry and designers to stop using sickly-thin women on the catwalks and start promoting a healthy body image by using women with a realistic size and weight. The World Health Organisation, doctors and women’s groups totally agree on the use of more healthy-looking women in fashion, as they believe that ultra-thin models can put pressure on teenage girls to be as skinny as them and try as hard as possible to get down to the lowest size.
The Fantasy
The notion of beauty today seems all about size. The amount of girls wants to die for being as skinny as their favourite celebrities. To put this into context, let me remind you of the global fantasy – Hollywood.
There are many Hollywood stars that have all admitted eating disorders, including Mary-Kate Olsen, Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan. The media cannot stop splashing their photographs over the front cover, accentuating their shoulder bones and knee joints. They even call them “trendsetters”. Celebrity magazines somehow publish juicy quotes, criticising podgy celebrities wearing too-tight latex leggings. In this situation, the media are not too probable to blame for pressuring celebrities into committing the skeletal trend.
Size Zero is No Hero
As the media idolise skinny starlets, a leading British expert on eating disorders warns that the women’s obsessions with size-zero lead them to suffer from “famine then feast” eating disorder. Professor Janet Treasure from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, says the super-skeletal trend is an eating disorder time bomb for both the general public and models. He also defines “famine then feast” as eating disorder where a cycle is set up when a diet is broken by the attraction of highly palatable food, and a pattern known as “binge priming” begins.
Anorexia nervosa also has reasons which are linked to the size-zero trend. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, it is estimated that 0.5% to 3.7%t of women will suffer from anorexia in their life; 1.1% to 4.2% for bulimia and 2% to 5% for binge eating disorder. Anorexia is a very dangerous illness which takes hundreds of women’s lives. Therefore, size zero is no hero at all.
What Do We Do Now?
Malnutrition, heart failure, and psychological complexes are all very real consequences of being underweight. This is why the fashion industry needs to stop their obsession with “size-zero” models by hiring more healthy-looking women on the catwalks, or perhaps making fashionable clothes for full-figured women. This can change attitudes towards the perception of beauty which is always constructed in terms of outward appearance and body size.
The zero-sized isn’t attractive; the obsession is not healthy at all. Girls should stop having a mental image of their body, always seeing themselves as fat and starving themselves. We had no choice when we were born to be fat, but we do have a choice to look naturally beautiful and healthy.
Starving to death is really uncool. So — think again, sistas!
P.S. Feature was written by Geeta for the sole purpose of a college assignment. And the picture was taken from www.stylehog.com.
Hungry? No idea what to eat for dinner? Or are you scared to have dinner because it will make you fat?
A salad can be perfect diet food. It may sound boring and tasteless, but actually it can be an interesting meal by experimenting with vegetables, meat and salad dressings. Here’s my salad recipe that I would like to share with you:
Ingredients Lettuce leaves (torn, rinsed well and spun dry) 1 large potato (peeled and cut into cubes) 1 hard-boiled large egg (quartered or sliced into pieces) 1 slice or 2 slices of smoked beef (sliced into strips) 1 teaspoon olive oil Butter 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (if desired) Cheddar cheese (grated) or parmesan cheese ½ cup Thousand Island dressing or mayonnaise
How to make 1. Heat olive oil in a frying pan to medium heat. Add smoked beef. Fry until it is golden. Add butter as a flavour enhancer.
2. Cook potato in a saucepan of boiling water until it is tender. Drain. Or you can also steam the potato until it’s tender; drain, peel and cut it into cubes.
3. Place lettuce in a large bowl. Pour lemon juice over the lettuce. Add potato, hard-boiled egg and smoked beef. Toss gently to combine. Pour dressing. Top with grated cheddar or parmesan.
Voilà, dinner is ready and you shouldn't worry about getting fat anymore. Bon appétit!
An interesting question for women: what does it mean to lose your virginity?
Firstly, we have to know the definition of virginity. Virginity today has far more sophisticated definitions than before. “Never having had sexual intercourse” may be “the new definition” of virginity nowadays. It’s no longer “cleanliness” or “purity”, but “engaging in a lot of different kinds of sexual activities without intercourse”. Someone who has oral sex, anal intercourse, or other kinds of sex is still considered as a technical virgin. Many girls usually take this easy way out by using the loophole to get the pleasure they desire. In this way, the girls usually want to stay a virgin until they’re married or losing virginity before marriage is against their religion and strictly taboo.
People may define “virginity” differently, but we still have to revisit what it means to stay a virgin. In the new millennium, losing virginity is not something new among teens. Sex has no age limit. Sexual images in the media such as TV or the Internet are blamed for promoting teen sex. Condoms, birth control pills, or other kinds of contraceptive pills become preventive options for teens. And abortion becomes a way out of the undesirable pregnancy.
I know it’s not easy for girls to keep their virginity because of peer pressure and their boyfriends. Most guys today have already had sex. Sex is very important in a relationship for men and they will look for it elsewhere if they no longer get it from their girlfriends or wives. The ugly truth is: there are three things that every man needs – support, loyalty, and “The Cookie”. Some girls are pressured into losing their virginity because of “The Cookie”. Men. Need. Sex. They just love it.
Nevertheless, we (girls) cannot blame the media, our friends or boyfriends for losing our virginity. At the end of the day, it’s all up to you. One thing you have to remember is: love is a matter of trust and sex is a matter of lust. It’s your body, it’s your life and it should be your decision whether to have sex or not. If you’re not ready for it, tell your boyfriend and don’t let him pressure you into doing something you do not want to do. But if you are ready to give it away, make sure that you will do it with the right person at the right time.
First time sex is always going to be unforgettable. You cannot get your virginity back once it’s gone, so you must wait until you’re truly ready and fully trust the one you want to do it with.
O.M.D (Oh Mon Dieu)! This blog looks dead because of the lack of updates. Most my previous time was taken up by working, dating, clubbing and hanging around. But after I went back to my home country for good, I’ve just spent my time lazing around at home and watching an idiot box. I feel so jobless now (sobs). That’s why I’m gonna start updating this blog again with current posts and photos. Like a girls quote: “It’s the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time.” And now I’m one of the good girls again (grinning).
A couple of weeks before I went back home, I found some time to go on vacation with my close friends: Rohini, Pash and Rubee. We decided to go to Penang Island as a destination for our weekend getaway. Rubee did a little bit of digging to find cheap flights for all of us and made a hotel reservation.
Penang has a lot of temples. When we arrived there, we went straight to visit two of Penang’s famous temples such as Wat Chaiyamangkalaram (the temple with one of the longest reclining Buddha in Malaysia) and another temple which I forget the name. We also did a little shopping at Gurney Plaza and Little India, and finally walked along the Beach Street and stopped by Fort Cornwallis (the largest intact fortress still standing in Malaysia) – but too bad we couldn’t enter because it was closed.
The following day, we went to Batu Ferringhi (a top beach destination in Penang). I couldn’t wait to enjoy the salty, sea air with my beach bums – have a hot time lounging on the beach, draped in my super-sexy bikini (woot woot). Even though the weather was sizzling hot, we still had fun in the sun – sunbathing, strolling along the beach and feeling the sand and seawater beneath our feet. Another great excitement we didn’t miss there was horse riding. It was my first time riding on horseback; it was scary, but so much fun.
Too bad we could only stay there for three days. Even though my skin turned darker because of spending too much time in the sun, I didn’t care a damn because it was worth it. I “heart” Penang.
P.S. Some of the photos were taken by my friends, from their cameras.
I was beginning to run out of patience while waiting for my flight to Balikpapan at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta airport. The wait seemed to go on forever. It was my third homecoming, but felt like the first since I was away from family for nearly 10 months. My longing for home couldn’t be resisted anymore. So I took my camera out of the bag, looked out the window, and snapped a picture of Garuda Indonesia Airlines to distract myself.
My arrival home was something Mom had been hoping for since I was still in Kuala Lumpur. When I saw her standing in the airport waiting area, a welcoming smile was carved on her face. I locked my arms around her and pressed my lips very lightly to her forehead. She was just grinning and gave me a bear hug. It wasn’t quite an emotional homecoming; it was just because we missed each other badly. When I arrived home and met with my family again, I was thinking, “Gosh, this is my happy home, full of love.”
Nothing much happened in the first week I was there. I only went to some of my favourite eating places with Mom by bike – well, yeah, most every girl in my family knows how to ride a motorbike, but I’m scared of riding downtown now because I haven’t ridden in such a long time. Our neighbour invited us to her garden in a suburb for picking rambutans and cempedaks. I’m not a lover of tropical fruits, but picking rambutans sounded fun for me and I could eat as much as I’d like for free, so I just smiled my agreement.
My 3rd homecoming.
One of the best things of returning home is a high-school reunion where I can meet and mess around with old school friends. We went for a movie and karaoke-ing, and played pool. My girls and I went swimming at a water park and slept over at one of their houses. We were reminiscing, gossiping and laughing ourselves silly while snacking all night. I really enjoyed myself – so did my friends.
Karaoke-ing and pool-ing with my friends.
Swimming at a water park with my girls.
Splish...Splash!
It was a pity two of my girls had an accident. They fell down from a motorbike while we were riding to a pool place. One of them got seven stitches on her tummy. Thank God, they weren’t seriously injured so that they could go home and took some rest. All of us were traumatised before – so were our parents, but later we laughed the incident off as just our silly recklessness.
Now, I can’t wait to come back to Kuala Lumpur and my mindless routine (doing assignments) when college starts again. At least I will still meet my college friends and hang out with them again. Spending a lot of time with them gossiping or just chilling out somewhere can be real fun. That’s why I miss them greatly :)
