Whisper of the Heart

courtesy of cinematoria.com

I love this movie very much and never get bored to watch it. 

Whisper of the Heart, by Studio Ghibli.

It is an inspiring story about Shizuku Tsukishima, a junior high school student, who tries to find her talent and passion in life. She was inspired by her schoolmate, Seiji Amasawa. Seiji wanted to be a violin maker. 

This is where things are getting interesting. By the help from Mr Nishi (who's excitingly is Seiji's grandad), Shizuku learned the process of finding her talent. It was through a rough geode emerald stone. She have to dig down deep to find her 'gem' first. In this stage, she needs to try her passion. Once she find the gem, she needs to polish it. It takes lot of a hard work. The process of making the emerald stone into polished emerald crystal is taking years. It needs a lot of patience and she has to polish it untiringly, until it worth a lot of money.

Instead of the great philosophy, this movie is also very cute for Seiji's crush on Shizuku. I leave this best part for you to see...

Pekanbaru,

Kualitas

Satu hal yang tak kusukai adalah minimnya perencanaan, antisipasi masalah urgent yang rutin, dan tenggat waktu untuk melakukannya di tempat kerja. Kalau model begini, mana ada waktu untuk menghasilkan pekerjaan berkualitas.

Buruknya perencanaan dapat mengganggu kinerja karyawan. Semua orang akan terseret pada kegiatan-kegiatan yang sifatnya ‘dadakan’, hanya untuk memenuhi prasyarat penyerapan anggaran. Tidak ada pertimbangan soal kualitas kerja, karena kuantitas adalah segalanya. Aku tidak suka konsep ini.

Beberapa bulan satu kantor dengan seorang teman asing saat PhD di Perth, aku bisa melihat cara kerjanya yang sangat terorganisasi. Ia membuat jadwal harian, menyiapkan folder-folder sesuai kebutuhan, misalnya standard, data, keuangan, etc, dan rutin melakukan refleksi serta pelaporan. Ia melakukan segala-sesuatu seperti mengikuti suatu bagan alir tak nyata, semuanya sungguh rapi dan tertata. Meski kemudian sangat sibuk dengan segala permintaan pembimbing, ia tetap dapat menjaga housekeeping tadi.

Aku sungguh iri. Seolah ia telah terbiasa bertahun-tahun melaksanakan hal itu. Berdasarkan ceritanya, ia mengaku bukan orang yang rapi. Tetapi rutinitas seperti itu pastilah berkat latihan disiplin di tempat kerja asalnya. Tidak heran mereka berjaya karena mutu pekerjaan saja sudah beda levelnya.

Sedang diriku? Well, yeah…

Aku akui kalau saat ini sangat bingung dengan tumpukan tanggung jawab dan aneka kompetisi yang harus dikejar. Seolah-olah tak cukup dengan pekerjaan yang sudah ada, masih juga disemangati untuk mengerjakan hal-hal tak relevan lainnya. Kadang-kadang harus mengambil alih beberapa hal remeh-temeh yang seharusnya bisa dikerjakan pihak lain, tetapi karena kata sakti ‘due date/deadline’, maka mau tak mau harus terlibat. Inilah yang menyakitkan, karena jadwal tertata rapi tadi harus mundur teratur oleh prioritas dadakan lagi.

Di situlah aku menyesali bahwa tidak akan pernah ada cukup waktu kalau ingin mengerjakan sesuatu yang bermutu. Kuantitas mengalahkan kualitas. Kualitas menjadi korban pekerjaan dadakan.

Teknik antisipasinya? Tahun ini aku harus tegas mengikuti target dan jadwal pribadi. Target dan jadwal tersebut akan dapat memberi arahan untuk mencapai hal-hal yang diinginkan tanpa terdeviasi pada isu-isu dadakan di tempat kerja. Kemudian, harus belajar berani mengatakan 'tidak' nicely. Tidak untuk pekerjaan dadakan yang mengorbankan mutu.

Pekanbaru,

When I watch the sunrise with him

We must be very lucky to have a luxury to observe sunrise every day when we live in Perth.

Every morning the sunrise pattern is different, it really depends on the season.

It was beautiful, in particular at hottest days. First, some golden rays appeared, then the sky colour turned really red. I can’t really describe this, but you could this amazing picture.

Hubby then rushed to take some pictures for his sunrise photo collection.

While, I just like to enjoy the beautiful sight from the balcony.

What do you think about this:

I could watch this forever.

It’s really, “Allah is a Great Creator”.

When we see sunrise and sunset in a day, don’t you notice that we could have a different feeling towards ourselves?

I noticed that ~

Sunrise raises hope.

Sunset delivers serenity.

And both scenes are really romantic, especially when we are able to enjoy it with our spouse.

Although we couldn’t see the sunset because it was on the other side of the building,

I guess I am still blessed this.

Pekanbaru,

I dedicated this note for my dear hubby who’s still working on his project.

Lilly Pilly

 

Speak of this fruit in the photo; it brings out a good memory of summer in Perth. Summer is not complete without stone fruits like plums, peaches, grapes, etc. But, summer is also my favourite time for another type of bush fruit, named ‘lilly pilly’ or Australian cherries.

This fruit has a sweet flesh and taste like ‘jambu’ in Indonesia. Early settlers used lilly pilly as jams, jellies and summer drinks. But this must be a hard work. I couldn’t think how we could efficiently remove the little beardy bits inside. Lilly pilly is very small, the diameter is less than 1cm! In case you want to give a try, check here on how to make lilly pilly’s jam and jelly.

I’ve been insulted by hubby and sister for my craving of this fruit. They helped me tough, to get lilly pilly from the trees, but they still laughed at me. They consider that it was embarrassing to pick those lilly pilly from abandoned trees and acted like never eat a decent thing before. However, well, I never stop to tease them with the lilly pilly saga every summer!

I’m thinking about this purple lilly pilly. When I will get a chance to taste it?

Pekanbaru,

English Mags

 

I saw these mags at the pedestrian road, Tongji Uni campus, Shanghai (2009). There were heaps of magazines. They were not only in Chinese language, interestingly, mags like Forbes, Time, Newsweek, Der Spiegel, Vogue, The Economist could be easily seen there.

English is definitely not their first language. But with a rapid development in economy, more Chinese travel and study abroad, hence it is important to master English. Besides, Chinese were also more open to many aspect of Western culture. For example, many uni in China had more collaboration in research and staff/student exchange with some universities in Western countries recently. This is to speed up their qualities on teaching and R & D areas instead of working on those areas internally.

Due to a high mobility of information in every aspect of life, no wonder many students in China’s big cities like Shanghai are able to speak English like native speaker now. It can be seen by their preference in word choices, good grammar and fine accent.

I’m so envy their English capability and thinking development for my own students. If I bump into any student who read Time or Newsweek at their free time at the uni, I think I’ll definitely give him/her a perfect mark in English!

Pekanbaru,

Pulau Pasir, Belitung

Forget about botanical garden, tower, museum, art gallery, even beautiful landscape, this spot offers something very special.

It is a small island or sand bank that is surrounded by seawater. The island appears from the sea at low tide in the morning.

I think this place is really interesting. It is around 10msquare and we can’t see it all the time. Surprisingly, there are so many big orange starfishes lying on the sand.

However, it is illegal to bring the starfish to the land. They can live for a very short time in the air. It is a waste to bring that beautiful creature just for our personal satisfaction. 

Let them stay peacefully at Pulau Pasir, Belitung.

Pekanbaru,