#2020memories

Finally this freaking year is going to be over soon lol. Soooo many things happened this year, and the most notably one: COVID-19 outbreak, which changed the way we live. People try to adapt their lifestyle to the pandemic, including more work/study from home, increase in delivery service, impacted establishment need to think hard to survive, while other new “inventions” are proliferating, e.g. fabric masks, mask connector, face shield, hand sanitizer, jastip for food, 1L drinks, online workout classes, webinar, online graduation, etc.

It basically changes our way of life.

As for me, it changed so many things. Blessing in disguise, I can avoid three-hour commuting and I can work remotely from home, one thing I’ve wanted since I know how fucked-up commuting to/from Jakarta haha. However, it is not always flowers and rainbows. After around eight months straight working from home, I got burnout. In this situation, ideally, I need to take a break and go somewhere to refresh my mind. As w’all (... we all) know, in the current state, travelling is not that easy and worrying, and all I can do is take a break. Turned out it was enough.

Okay, that’s quite a long introduction, now let’s look back to this roller-coaster, mixer, mesin-molen year!

January

This year started pretty bad for Jakarta. On the first day of the year, it flooded due to heavy rain during the new year’s eve. 

At the start of the year, I did not have any expectations because I know it’s gonna be a hard year for me, given that my dad retired this year, so I would be the main breadwinner of the family. The thought of it quite made me stressed out lol. I was worried.

On the other side, I had a determination to meet more people this year. So I started using Tinder, got a gut to see an anon friend that I know he’s playing Pokemon Go too, and joined an OTS Pokemon Go raid hahah. I also reached level 30 in Pokemon Go this month, an important step to seek the next level of Pokemon Go sphere lol. 

Talking about Tinder, I also made myself brave to see a guy from Tinder hahahah. We had a nice conversation on Tinder, so I asked him to move to Line. We chatted well, and we decided to meet up at PI. The meet up was great, and we tended to see each other sometimes again. The second meeting took place at CP. We had a dinner and watched 1917, the first and the last movie I saw in a cinema this year *cry*. And that was our last meeting. 

Also at the very end of this month, I got someone who listens to me. Sometimes well, sometimes budek. Wkwkw. 

February 

Everything went as usual. 

Wake up - get up - commute - work - lunch - work - slipped out of the office to have a Pokemon Go battle in front of Starbucks/have a stroll around PI/bought boba - going home - take a rest. Sometimes working OT. And on some weekends, working on freelance projects.

Meet up with BC in Bogor to update things that have turned the table lol.

Tiger Sugar opened its booth at PI.

Massive disruption on the Commuter Line and Transjakarta, on a rainy day. Rebek bgt dah w sampe kantor jam 10.

March

Early March, still working as usual. News on Coronavirus grew as it worsened in China. In Indonesia, the first two confirmed cases were found this month. Some offices decided to implement WFH policy for a short period of time, which turned out…

When the confirmed cases reached 50, it was the time my office decided to implement WFH policy with a 50:50 arrangement. The last time I went to the office was 16 March. It was a chaotic day in Jakarta due to limitation of passenger capacity of Transjakarta and MRT. A long line of people were there when I walked out of Sudirman Station. Since I could not take a TJ or MRT to the office, I decided to walk to the office. Luckily, it was a cloudy morning, still it made me sweat a lot. And I brought my laptop too lol. 

On that day, we were working as usual. But there were some rumours on the WFH policy and I prayed for it to be implemented ASAP. That afternoon, translators are celebrating Mas Oddie’s birthday. It was the last time for four of us (last day seeing Gian tho) working together at the same table. I remember I said, “the vaccine would take 18 months to be developed. I wonder how we’ll be in if we work from home for 18 months. Haha.” well :_) it’s been 9 months, another 9 months to go lol.

The next day, there was an announcement on WFH arrangement, and that’s it, the beginning of my months, nearly a year, WFH life.

To be honest, commuting by train and bus for a long time during the beginning of the outbreak in Indonesia felt worrying. Especially, when someone does not wear masks, in particular when s/he’s coughing or sneezing. The worry itself made me uncomfortable in the already uncomfortable commuting situation. I felt relieved when the WFH policy was officially implemented. Not only I felt safer, it is my dream came true lol.

March - December

I aggregated them all because they all felt more or less the same lol.

At the start of the so-called quarantine, people are sunbathing every morning. People are exercising a lot. Me too. I walked around the neighborhood after subuh. IMAGINE lol. Restaurants are closed and only offering delivery/take-away orders. This time, 1L bottle of beverages people usually take during work/school was developed, such as Starbucks, Famima drinks, Chatime, Kokumi, Kopi Tuku, etc. Hotels also shifted their core service from hospitality to food delivery. Some even offer special packages for WFH haha. Things that were arising since this period: TikTok, dalgona coffee, cloud bread, etc. People were still obedient by staying at home a lot, and did things to make it bearable.

Ramadhan came. That time, I was veeeery grateful since I could spend the whole month with my family. During usual working course, I had fast breaking with them on weekends only. I was happy I can finish my work at 5 and helped to prepare the takjil, which I really enjoy, and had the fast breaking together at home. What a luxury I had. Another blessing in disguise, I did not have any bukber this year. At all. Idk, I intended to ‘minimize’ frequency of bukber this year, which turned out I minimized it to zero lol. 

Idul Fitri. Very limited communal prayers were held. My family had our own. And we did not pulang kampung.

June, the last edition of Donal Bebek magazine was issued. I was so sad as it is what connects my childhood and adulthood. But things got to move on.

A month after Idul Fitri, my parents announced that they will renovate the house, so we had to move out while the construction took place. We found a rented house around 100 m near here. Weeks before, we packed things little by little.

End of July, we moved out to the rented house. It was a small house with one bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a small backyard for laundry. It was nice actually, the only un-nice aspect about the house is that it was very hot. Very hot I mean, we brought three fans, and all of them had to be turned on in turn 24/7, unless it was raining. Hell :”) we stayed there for three months, passed the hottest months (July to September) there :).

The rented house complex was a very close-knit one, so things are very different there, despite of the more-or-less-100-m distance between it and my home. It uses an electricity token, which beeps when the credit runs out. It was not uncommon to hear beeping sounds 24/7. In the morning, I woke up earlier. Not because of my alarm, but due to ‘natural’ alarm: crying and yelling kids. Gahhhh.

However, one thing that I loved about the complex is that it got many cats and the most of the residents love cats. Awww. There was a female cat who liked to play around my unit. My sister and I called her Neng. Neng was a slender cat with white fur and several black spots on its body. One of her eyes is cloudy, at first I did not know why. She played along and I fed her. Days gone and we noticed her belly was getting bigger. Hah she’s pregnant hahahah. At that time, we knew her real name was… Miguel :”) wkwkwkwk. And she was owned by a neighbor who lived two units beside ours. Miguel usually entered the unit through the window that my mom opened after subuh. She walked around and snuggled to me or my sist when we were sleeping. She likes to sleep on my chest or thighs lol. 

Early August, her belly seemed to explode in the near time hahahah. On 3 August, she gave birth to four cute kittens. Three males, one female. It was also my first time taking care of newly-born kittens. They grew well. From helpless, little creatures with closed eyes, walking wobbly, to (still small) kittens who actively run here and there, scratch, bite, jump. When they were one month old, we gave them names: Mipan, Sierra, Bedut, Leon. Before the names were fixed, all of them were called Dedek wkwkw. Several days later, two of them, Bedut and Leon, were adopted by a neighbor. Huhu.

So that’s it, my new reality: living in a hot rented house unit, with three cats. My routine back then was: wake up at 7:00, walking to my home to feed Heri and Emak, walking back to the rented house, feeding Miguel, Mipan, and Sierra, working, walking to feed Heri and Emak again, back to the rented house, having magrib prayer, having dinner, and having leisure time, usually spent with the cats, taking a shower, sleeping, repeat. 

Among the kittens, I found Mipan the most adorable one. From it was a baby, it was the first one who was brave enough to be around humans, to be carried, and to purr when its chin was stroked haha. Mipan is my favorite. 

One day, Mipan drank spoiled milk, and his appetite was slowly gone. On each meal, he ate less and less, he only wanted to drink his mom’s milk. Huhuuu. After two days, I decided to check him to a vet. We did not have a pet carrier, so we used a Shopee cardboard to carry Mipan lol. Fortunately the vet is near, so Mipan was locked inside the box for a while. The visit to the clinic cost me quite a lot, and it was also my first time going to a vet and did PDA: calling sayang in public lol. The medicine worked well. In a day, he gained back his appetite and recovered.

August :) normally it is a festive month for me personally. The travelling month. For the past five years, I have been travelling somewhere in Augusts. But this year is different, I was locked inside a hot small rented house :( I tried to give it little sparks by having lunch at a Sundanese restaurant in Bogor. I also took a day off to just walk in Kebun Raya, had a culinaire tour (?) on Suryakencana Street, and had a Pokemon Go raid hour at Sempur.

October, finally the renovation is nearly complete. Just two weeks before we’re moving out, Mipan was gone without trace T______T along with Bedut huhuuuuu. It was a weird week, when cats were gone, their collar tags were also gone. Weird weird. I wanted to move out soon. I bought collar tags for Mipan and Sierra, but it arrived two days after Mipan was missing T___T and Sierra’s tag was missing just two days before we moved out. Weird. Hence, Sierra was the last one for me to take care of :”( it was really hard to accept that Mipan was missing. There were days when I walked around searching for him with no results. Stages of grief really applied to me back then.

End of October, we’re moving back home, and finally I have my own bedroom hahah. Sierra was also brought home and she sleeps with me. Yeay finally my dreams came true hahahahaha. I spent some money to decorate my own room hahah. 

Mid-November, something unexpected yet relieving happened to my family. And I can never be more grateful for that. 

End of December to early December, I had a burnout. I realized it from my lowering performance (more hours to complete a simple task), easily irritated, etc. Finally, I had a day off on one Monday just to take a proper rest.

Mid-December, my third working anniversary. I went to ground zero a.k.a. Plaza Indonesia lol and had Hakata Ikkousha ramen. There was a promo of free side dish for every purchase of ramen, so I got free gyoza. Then I walked around the mall, reminiscing the good ol’ days :”) after that, I took a TJ to Monas, transfer to 1A bus to Penjaringan, and I walked to Emporium Pluit to have a dessert: fluffy pancake. I've been craving for it for a long time hahah. I miss Flippers’. I ate Pan & Co’s La Caramello, which was too sweet for me. Feeling unsatisfied, I ordered a latte bubble from Tiger Sugar. Finally I felt full hahah. So I just walked around and played Pokemon Go. The mall was closed at 7 pm, but I decided to go home around 6. I waited for a TJ 9 bus and an empty one came. I sat in the behind, next to the window. Wow, it was the right decision. I got to see sunsets along the way and it was full when it reached Central Park lol. I took a train home and that was it. I was happy :)))

End of December, I expected to have peaceful last weeks of work. Turned out they offered plenty of work to us. Hahhh :”) on Ocha’s birthday, I made a mille crepes. It was a sudden impulse, I just bought the materials the day before, after work. After the attempt, I am eager to learn and make more variations of it.

So that’s it :)

Despite of the pandemic, I am really grateful my family is not severely impacted by the virus. I don’t get salary cut, still got my bonus, my family are healthy, I got cats, etc. My wish for 2020 was to survive and stay sane. I survived, and lost a biiiit of sanity lol. I started doing exercise, from skipping to yoga, cooked and baked more things other than Indomie and kue lebaran, and investing in mutual funds.

For 2021, I don’t have any big expectations or targets, but I start to feel the need of self-development, so yeah, maybe I can develop myself more this year, in terms of career and personal development. I really do not expect any travelling this year :” maybe the earliest time to set a travelling goal was 2022 :”) I also think I should ask myself again what I really want and pursue it. I also need to rebuild the habit of making monthly budget and recording expenses each day. 

Ok so let’s see what were trending in 2020:

Zoom, Skype

Virtual (insert name of event)

Tiktok

Dalgona

1L drinks

Pajamas as daily outfit (wth)

Lilac

Bengek hyung

MASK

HAND ZEZEZEZER

Fudgy brownies

Mentai

Prepare-at-home restaurant meals

#dirumahaja

Travelling to Bali, Puncak, Lombok on Q3 Q4

Pritikil kisihitin (I’m so sick of this as justification for doing things unrecommended to do during pandemic)

Clover honey HNI

Jastip 

Makanan Kansas on ojol apps :”)

Alice in Borderland, Queen’s Gambit, Hospital Playlist

See you next year!