Thrift Shop Hacks : After Senen

Hey there it's actually still a post about Strolling Around : Jakarta.

The stories continues to my thrift shop hunt with my friend Asta Pramesti. Actually I have told that me and Asta have that thing with second stuff here in our strolls in Semarang last year. Tapi tiap kali kita thrift shopping, pasti ada aja orang di sekitar kita yang heran sama kesukaan kita yang satu ini. Beyond words, there is an unexplained excitement tiap kali liat thrift galore hahaha

We actually heard a lot about thrift shop myths. Banyak banget pendapat yang bilang kalo belanja di thrift shop itu nggak safety karena barang nya  udah downgrading, atau bahkan sampe tanya "Emang nggak takut kena penyakit kulit, kalau pake barang bekas orang lain?". Inget kan, beberapa waktu lalu juga sempet ada desas-desus kalau barang bekas impor dilarang diperjualbelikan di Indonesia. We were so shock back then, because, why? Thrift shop cycle in another country still went super well. Melbourne dan Tokyo deh, these ex-harbour cities have a great thrift shops kalo baca-baca di site nya travel bloggers.

But after a year, ternyata masih banyak juga thrift shop yang bisa kita datengin buat hunting barang secondhand, terutama pakaian. Nah, during our internship time, ada satu tempat yang udah ada on the top of our list to satisfy that hobby. Yash! Pasar Senen. Kesenengan banget pas masuk Senen, pokoknya. But before we grumbling about our (cool) findings there, we want to share our thought about why people should consider buying things from thrift shops:

1) Good News for Earth

We do think that by applying 3R (Reduce, Recycle, Reuse). It's more complicated than plastic bag dilema ngga sih? Proses clothing supaya beneran jadi cloth takes a lot of nature's effort too.

2) Good News for Us

Tau dong pasti yah kalo harga barang-barang di thrift shop itu lebih miring daripada barang di toko. For you who likes to do mix-matching, thrift shopping is a hack to have a crossover trends from the oldest to the newest.

Nah, biar kekhawatiran yang banyak muncul itu nggak kejadian, aku sama Asta biasanya ngelakuin beberapa hacks yang mungkin bisa kamu terapin kalo pengen nyobain thrift shopping:

1) First timer, dateng kalo bisa sama temen yang udah pernah belanja secondhand stuff. Supaya tau barang yang dicari ada di mana, dan nggak keliatan bingung. Because the trader know if we 're confused, salah-salah bisa kena harga tertinggi even if we think it's already cheap.
2) Asal nya barang-barang di thrift shop kan beda-beda, ada yang dropship, ada yang personal, pelan-pelan aja milihnya. Liat barang yang kamu mau beli masing bener-bener well, atau emang kamu amazed by the cuts or the price aja. But sometimes hal kayak gitu bisa jadi alesan buat bargain the price, misalnya ada kancing yang warna nya beda atau terlepas, atau ada sablon yang nggak pada tempatnya.
3) Clean is the must. We both never judge that barang thrift shop itu nggak bersih, tapi kadang mungkin karena disimpen kelamaan, ada noda kuning yang biasanya paling susah dicuci, biasanya di kemeja bahan katun yang paling keliatan. Make sure kalo udah kebeli tu barang, cuci bersih dulu baru dipake, yah. Biar keliatan baru rapih.
4) Bring your bargainer friend! Aku anaknya agak awkward kalo nawar-nawar, lucky me I got Asta on my back. Skill nawar ini biasanya dipake buat barang yang menurut kita agak pricey, like parka / denim jacket. Kalo udah murah banget, you can consider to buy it directly sih. Liat juga kondisi thrift shop yang kamu datengin, intinya jangan nguntungin diri sendiri but do think about the trader too.
5) Choose wisely. If you think you don't really need it, then go find for other thing. Emang sih, ga nahan banget barang lucu dengan harga terjangkau (dibandingkan barang baru). But if you'll stay in tropical country, why buy a furry coat? Investment? Bisa jadi consideration sih. But again, this is a hacks so shop wisely.

Nah kemarin di Senen aku dan Asta ngabisin 2 jam buat muter-muter. Which is kurang yah buat Senen yang banyak banget orang dagang barang second :')
But here are some items that we found!

Denim Jacket (with patches on it!)
Price offered : IDR 125k
Price after bargain : IDR 85K
Quality : 90% well, jahitannya kuat dan warna nya nggak shabby sama sekali.
Lack : Ada noda kuning di kerah yang ngga ilang pas di laundry, I think it needs more special treatment.

Actually this is not my love at first sight clothes pas jalan ke Senen kemarin. Ada yellow parachute jacket yang aku suka banget but eventually I ended up leaving that for some reason. Abis itu aku dan Asta nemu lapak yang barangnya denim jacket semua. And I fell for this one. Denim warna ini menurut aku bisa dipake di bright colors karena kebetulan aku nggak terlalu punya banyak pakaian dengan warna basic. And besides I am crazy over patches dan ini satu-satunya denim jacket yang ada patches nya so this is so far one of my best thrift shop found!

Nah, here's the deets. Warna jaket denim ini agak washed but like I said, nggak shabby.
Sebenernya baby pink hem (hem ternyata Dutch version of shirt loh!), yang aku pakai di dalam jaket juga dapet di Senen kemarin. So that's the second finding!

Baby Pink Shirt (UNIQLO short sleeve clothes)
Price offered : IDR 35K
Price after bargain : IDR 20K
Quality : 90% well, bahannya adem dan tebel. And the color is so Japanese street style tone :')
Lack : So far nggak ada sih, tapi karena agak kaku, jadi setelah dipake gampang lecek.

Kebetulan aku dan Asta masing-masing beli 2 item di tempat yang sama, dan baju ini tandeman dari boyfriend shirt nya Asta. Lucu aja awalnya si pedagang bilang harga pas banget meskipun si Asta nawarnya udah kayak sama-sama dagang. Di kios William Collection's ini awalnya aku cuma lewat, and somehow di Senen tu banyak cara berdagang yang lucu. Si abang penjaga toko pake pantun yang lol abis but we left karena awalnya ngga nemu yang kita suka. And after we go back, and pick 2 clothes, we met the boss yang eyel-eyelan harganya nggak bisa dikurangin. But after a minute of silent there's a song and he suddenly -randomly- asked who's the singer, the song was Counting Stars. I answered, "One Republic, kan ya?" and he accept our offer! Yeay thank you so much abang bos William Collection's.

Forest Green Boyfriend Shirt (worn as outer)
Price offered : IDR 65k
Price after bargain : IDR 50K
Quality : 90% well. Warna nya nggak shabby, warna ijo tuh rawan banget jadi shabby apalagi bahan nya tebal (mirip American Drill but I am not sure hehe).
Lack : Nothing much. Lack ini personal sih and since it's Asta's pick aku nggak terlalu liat ada kekurangan.

Dilema is one thing that usually came up during thrift shopping. Waktu ke Senen kemarin nemu jaket denim dengan warna Olive Green dengan harga IDR 50K pas, nggak boleh ditawar. But, that jacket was too shabby jadi keliatan kayak over washed a.k.a buluk. So, Asta memutuskan buat nggak beli dan akhirnya nemu denim yang doi banget, dan boyfriend shirt yang bahannya tebel gini. Meskipun pas pulang kebayang-bayang juga tuh jaket denim olive hahaha.

Denim Jacket #2
Price offered : IDR 125K
Price after bargain : IDR 85K
Quality : 90% well. Jahitannya kuat, jenis denim lebih berat daripada foto denim pertama.
Lack : Pocket button sebelah kiri atas ternyata udah bukan yang asli hahaha we missed checkin' this.

I am saying this one a lot more 'country' than mine soalnya warna nya lebih muda. The thing is nyari jaket denim buat Asta kemarin agak susah karena nyari yang ada kantong dalem dan cut nya sesuai yang dia pengen, which is not too short, for she likes the oversized one. Anyway meskipun nawar, better kalau temen yang dateng sama kamu juga mau beli barang yang sama. Kita dapet harga segitu karena pake embel-embel "kan, kita ambilnya dua pak...". Oiya, kadang ada hal yang bikin kita mikir banget misalnya kayak kantong dalem jaket ini yang kena jahitan kantong luar, jadi sempit buat masukin barang. Do ask the trader kalo ada hack yang bisa dipake buat ngakalin kekurangan itu, ya!

Despite all of the clothes we've got, the feeling of accomplishing thrift shopping mission di iconic place nya seconhand stuff is a feeling we can't barely tell!

We hope you'd try thrift shopping too, if you haven't :)

xx

Avi

P.S. All picture captured by Asta Pramesti

Strolling Around : Jakarta

There is always a first time for everything in life.

The first time you grab a pen and make your first scratch.

The first time you push a button on an elevator.

The first time you eat a raw sushi.

Selalu ada waktu untuk yang pertama kali, buat apapun. This post will eventually get there, my first time spending time away from home.

But first, talking about the first, last Saturday me and two of my fellas; Asta and Dina, have just visited the first Dunkin Donut store in Indonesia, di Jalan Hayam Wuruk, Jakarta. My friend is a die hard fan of DD so it is super necessary to drop by there only to know how was it look like to enjoy your donut in 80's era.

My impression about the store was; oh so American. Interior kedai Dunkin Donut ini banyak memakai unsur kayu dan cahaya temaram lampu kuning, jadi kesannya hangat. Ditambah lagi kursi-kursi yang tersedia masih pake kursi klasik a la American dinner dan beberapa kursi rotan dengan warna senada. If you're a fan of The Perks of Being A Wallflower, the ambience is quiet looking like Kings.,

The kind of friends that I keep : they let me take pictures of our table

I am hanging out with millenials who have life on the phone.

She does, too,

Di area luar, masih berasa banget kesan jadul nya. Kebetulan karena kami dateng di siang hari, keliatan aja bagian luar dibiarkan terbuka tanpa tambahan cahaya lampu, I feel like I am watching Indonesian soap opera in 90's era. But the thing that a bit different for me is, hampir 80% pengunjung adalah bapak-bapak (I guess above 40 yo) yang datangnya bergerombol gitu, sekadar nyantai-nyantai, well I rarely see that in a typical donut cafe.

I don't have to talk much about the menu because, who doesn't love classic DDs? And who's ordering a dine in menu without having dat winning chocolate? (Well actually we only ordered one cup for three lol).

After DD, we decided to walk about 2 kilometers to take a peak on an ice cream pioneer in Jakarta, Ragusa Eskrim Italia. Sering lihat eskrim ini dalam acara jalan-jalan di televisi, ternyata rame betul di kedainya yang kecil dan sederhana. Di depan nya banyak pedang berjualan juhi  & asinan, otak-otak, kue ape dan aneka jajanan lain, yang juga bisa pesan untuk makan di kedai Ragusa. Jadilah kami yang nggak dapat tempat duduk ngemper di luar dengan pengunjung lainnya. But I this the first time I saw people make a long line, we can see it from outside of the store, to eat ice cream.

Natural crowd. Taken by Asta Pramesti

Ragusa ini berdiri sejak 1932, I imagined that time, dimana Indonesia belom merdeka, only fancy people eat there. Menu nya juga klasik, nggak neko-neko dengan banyak pilihan topping atau varian rasa, simplicity in a very best way. I actually thought that Italian Ice Crem texture must be like gelatto, but turns out Ragusa is more like milk ice cream and it taste geeewd.

Visiting Judy in Zootopia

Akhirnya gelisah menulis lagi.

Pernah baca, mungkin di kutipan-kutipan yang lewat di lini masa, "broken hearted people wrote the best love song". At this point, I am not broken hearted and this is ain't a love song. Similarity lies on the writing, gelisah-gelisah itu, sampai penawarnya, yang bikin kamu pengen nulis lagi.

Anyway, couple weeks ago I watched Zootopia for the first time. Here I am not gonna mumble about finding any Disney's easter eggs because that is John Negroni's duty.

It's about the feeling of renewing yourself all over again. Well, aku orang yang percaya kalau cerita-cerita dalam film itu adalah slice of life. Kadang kita nemuin kesamaan-kesamaan yang bikin mikir "this is so me". You know right, when it come to Disney's movie, it will lands to a spirit of making your dreams come true. Tapi beyond that, ketika lagi ada di some low points of our life, ada hal-hal lain yang lebih touching dibandingkan merealisasikan mimpi itu sendiri. Dan di Zootopia, aku menemukan nilai itu.

Believe me I told everyone I met after I watched the movie, "you should watch it, recharging banget!". The positivity of Judy Hopps is hitting me all the way around. Kalau udah liat film nya pasti ngerti deh, karakter Judy yang unbreakable dan always seek for the truth emang kuat banget dimunculkan dalam adegan dan dialog nya. And I don't know why but I think since I am no longer called 'a kid', dalam film-film sejenis gini jadi banyak nemuin makna lain yang pengen ditunjukin di film nya. Like when I watched Minnions in the movie theater last year, justru hal yang bikin ketawa itu how the filmmakers potrait England citizen by the way the acts, terus gimana Inside Out simply representing the journey of growing up is containing so many emotional mixed up. And what I see in Judy is, how she support herself.

Kebayang nggak, a cute little bunny who already believe that her dream is came true, have to facae the bitter reality and facing (too) many prejudice, not only from the team mate, team leader, and even her parents at home. This is dragging me back to a couple months ago, waktu itu lagi fed up banget dengan banyaknya tugas kuliah, kerja tim yang ngga balance, target-target yang nggak tercapai sesuai dengan ekspektasi, dan lain-lainnya. One of my team mates ask, "do you still have a spirit to continue it?", at that time, I was confused. I have to finish the thing that I have started, by keep doing my responsibility, but it feels like no space for me to share about that tiring-responsibility to anyone.

Then she ask again, "did your circle, from outside of this team, support you?". I think again, a lot of my closest friends said I am to tired, other people told me to stop, even that time I have a partner and he think somehow what I did is not good for me.

Until then, she said, "do you ever consider yourself as your own support system?". Pernah nggak sih, kepikiran kalau di dalam diri kita itu ada penyemangat, that is our inner voice. Pernah nggak sih, mematahkan argumen orang lain karena kita sangat yakin sama diri kita sendiri? Or simply, have you ever compliment yourself for things you have reached the whole time?

Judy, her parents didn't believe that she can be a cop. Chief Bogo, her team leader, underestimated her because he think a bunny was not a worth member. She's fighting the prejudice. Judy just keep going and prove them wrong. Dalam film Zootopia, ada tagline menarik, "Zootopia : where everyone can be anything". Judy keep that in her mind. Judy support herself to think that she is on the right track. Okay, we know how Judy reach her dream of being the first bunny cop. Tapi film ini bilang, nggak cukup loh, merealisasikan mimpi aja. so many things bigger are awaits, and reality is somehow sucks. Instead, film ini ngomongin gimana Judy prove herself, even she have reached her dream, karena kita nggak pernah tau kan, kalau apa yang kita liat sebagai mimpi itu juga se-ideal itu di mata orang lain?

Well unfortunately we live in a shared-world, right? You live under too many stereotypes of a zillion eyes. And somehow you will get tired and those so-called-support system won't save your broken heart. But remember, Judy taught us, to win that inner voice inside.

Hopefully I will keep this note to myself,

xx

Avi

#2015besttwelve

Happy new year, people! 2015 went real fast , don't you think?

Speaking of the last year, just before Christmas holiday, I asked couple of friends, "How was 2015?" some of the answers are about feeling guilty of not doing something, or regret doing several things, telling me anything they haven't accomplished, bad events happened in last 6 months.

Then I asked again, "Anything make you happy maybe? Or anything remarkable for you?" then there are so many happy answers, "Finally I made a great movies with my classmates", "I knew myself better this year", "Got into so many opportunities in the last few months".

If you asked to yourself, what is the thing that comes up to your mind when someone say, "2015"? What is your answer? What's the picture you'd like to chose in your mind?

Few weeks before 2015 ends #2015bestnine trend was on. It's fun to do that, the feeling when you're waiting the website finally chose your best 9 picture of your 2015 posts on Instagram. I think to myself then, why not I choose them myself? Not nine. How about twelve? I'd chose one each month in a year.

I choose one picture each month on my instagram feed (avirosas).
The tone here isn't blend well, but I can tell I picked each of them with some reasons.
These pictures representing a story of one year of my early 20 life.

Everytime I say "2015" to myself, it's hard to not reconnect it to the year before, 2014. I took so many chances that I couldn't handle perfectly after. I was on that comfort zone of "Do it later" puffy couch. Sometimes I'm that on-fire girl and sometimes I play lazy-Grizzly style.

Sweet Teeth

Finally this is the end of semester again! But no I  won't grumbling about how last semester wrecked me or guessing how next semester will be. But this post coming from an assignment, actually.

So last week my lecture gave us an assignment to make a photo story. Sure thing that suddenly came up to my mind is "It has to be food!" and looking like a magazine article. The topic I chose was culinary and to be more specific I chose sweet dishes that originally coming from Solo.

Then I remember that there's a dish that my grandpa usually brought every time he visits us; Jenang Lenjongan, the colorful jenang (jenang is Javanesse for porridge). At first, I thought lenjongan is the name of mixed sweet snack consist of klepon, gethuk, tiwul, and any sweeties made from cassava. But my mom said that lenjongan is the substitution word for mixed-variant of the dish.

I used an assignment pic so pardon that huge caption hahaha

Basically, jenang lenjongan is a mixed of various jenang in a plate. Consist of jenang mutiara (the red one made from pearl sago), jenang grendul (the caramel one made from rice flour), jenang sumsum (the white one made from rice flour), jenang ketan hitam (the black one made from glutinous rice). Those jenang then doused with coconut milk and palm sugar dressing. What I love the most from this dish is the sweet taste won't make you feel sick. And since it's all made from traditional ingredients, the price is not increasing at all since I was just a kid, only IDR 5000,-. I know the portion must be decreasing but they kept the taste just as good as always. This dish is kinda time machine for me to go back to 90's lol.

Yelled : I want more!

I didn't much jenang lenjongan stall in the city but this one is my family's favorite, placed near Pasar Nusukan (an alley before Bakso Kadipolo) Solo. But if it;s hard for you to find this place or you might want to try every jenang in this city for free, do come to Festival Jenang, an annual festival in Solo held every February to celebrate Solo's anniversary. You might found any kind of jenang there, not only the sweet one. But for you Solonian and #jajansolo tribe, this jenang place is very worth to try!

Will add more sweets soon.

xx,

Avi