HANZKY

I have a special notebook to write all the things that I'm thankful for everyday. Why don't I write it on my blog? Well some of them are very personal. Plus, I like the idea of closing the day, reflecting and writing it old style; with pen and paper (with my Hermes Ulysse notebook to be precise, LOL).

Last Friday was an exception though, it was indeed a happy Friday like I projected in the beginning of the day. I remember I tweeted something like 'Jumat ceria' :D. Here are the things that happened last Friday.

1. I woke up relatively early. I always like it when I wake up early and not have to pray, take a shower and get ready in a flash. When I can take my time like that, I feel like I'm setting a good foundation for the rest of the day.

2. I drove Jehan to school. Since we left early, we had time to stop by at Starbucks. We always love to share our love for Starbucks Iced Grande Latte :).

3. Bouncy hair! I went to Haircode after dropping Jehan to school. There's nothing that can make you feel good instantly as a good bouncy hair.

4. Interviewed a candidate for Fashionese Daily Editor. Hiring means we're growing, right? :)

5. Meeting with a Japanese company. Lately, we found ourselves meeting with people from all over the world, even as far as Silicon Valley :-).  It's good that even people outside of Indonesia notice us.

6. Tumpengan. I have decided that I'm now ready for that fancy CEO title :D. This deserves a separate post that I'll do one of these days. Nopai announced this last Wednesday and there's the 'Makan-makan!' request for every congratulation email I received from everyone in the office. So I guess I had no choice :). Plus, Vanya said it's customary to celebrate it with tumpeng when we have just been promoted. So I ordered one from Koko Bogana. Before the lunch, we had a quick doa/wishes for the company. And the food is goood!

7. Pretty candid picture taken by Kila :D. My candid picture usually result in me looking jutek or lagi melongo!. Thank you Kila!

Me? Travel light? I'm actually not sure if I can categorize myself as one. But I was pretty proud of myself when I opened the suitcase as soon as we arrived in our hotel room in KL last week, because I just realized that I actually do travel light.

4 days 3 nights for 2 adults and 2 kids and we didn't even fill all the space. Granted the suitcase is a large one but it's a hard case so that means the opening is in the middle and we can still stack more items even higher.

Not bad, right?



We did bring a carry on, but there was nothing in it but my ipad. Oh and we also bring a foldable duffel bag. Just in case :P
 

Went to Bandung on October 20 with the kids by train! Oki was already there for work since the day before. So he picked us up at the train station, we dropped the bags at the hotel, went swimming for a little bit, then he had to go back to Gedung Sate and we came along. Decided to go to PVJ with Angkot from Gedung Sate. Mesti naik dua kali pula. Tapi nggak papa, the mission is to give the kids the thrill of riding angkot. So off we went. Naik angkot di Bandung pas lagi mendung, jadi terasa banget angin sepoi-sepoi sampe Jehan pun ketiduran :D
Mulai nguap

I'm not one who sweat the small stuff when it comes to relationship. Almost 10 years of marriage and I've never complained if the toilet seat is not down or the fact that he never put the dirty clothes inside the hamper (he put it on top of it, not inside :D). I also never care when Jibran doesn't want to get a haircut. I mean, it's just hair, right?

But when it comes to business, I am the total opposite. To the point where I've wondered myself whether I'm doing the right thing or whether this is healthy or not. When I mean by small stuff; pictures on the blog that don't line up perfectly, pictures that are low quality, comments that are unanswered, typos in the powerpoint presentation, AC/light that don't get turned off when not used, logo that is not properly located and so many other things. The recent launch of Clozette Daily has especially made me realized more and more of how meticulous I can be.

Now I have come to a conclusion that small stuff matters. And paying attention to the small stuff helps me understand the big pictures. I don't believe we can get the big things right if we ignore the little things that often make a big difference. In a recent article I read, it says that everything we do/ignore, no matter how small, will move our business forward or drags the business backwards, which is so true...in every successful company, there are people who never overlook the small stuff.

To close this post, here's my favorite story about Steve Jobs and his attention to detail:

Hari Rabu kemaren, ada 3-way conference di sekolahnya Jibran. Apakah itu? Basically sih pertemuan antara guru-orangtua-murid yang diadakan setiap awal term untuk mengevaluasi pencapaian anak pada term sebelumnya. Menariknya, and this is one of the things that I love about Cikal, si anak juga harus mengevaluasi dirinya sendiri. Jadi harus ceritain menurut dia moment terbaiknya selama term sebelumnya apa aja, yang paling menyenangkan untuk dia pelajaran yang mana, challengenya apa aja, ada nggak yang perlu diimprove dan apa yang akan dilakukan untuk menyikapi kekurangan itu?

Iya, di Cikal memang murid-muridnya diajarkan untuk reflective dalam kesehariannya, anak jadi lebih jujur sama dirinya sendiri dalam proses belajar dan tahu bagaimana mengukur kemampuannya.
Di akhir 3-way conference, ada kertas yang isinya semua yang pembahasan selama conference beserta langkah-langkah yang akan diambil oleh si anak - orang tua - guru pada term berikutnya, trus kita semua harus tanda tangan. So far, I'm really happy with Sekolah Cikal..adem deh hati ini selama Jibran sekolah di sana..and I can say this because I have compared and have done my homework as he has gone to 3 other schools here in Jakarta before, so I know what I'm talking about.

Nah, here comes the proud mommy moment :D. Jangan bayangin kalo momen membanggakannya adalah melihat deretan nilai-nilai bagus karena di Cikal nggak ada yang namanya rapot berisikan angka-angka. They believe that kids are more than just a number dan banyak hal-hal yang tidak bisa dinilai dengan angka. (Jadi inget waktu di sekolah Jibran yang dulu saya pernah protes ke guru dan kepala sekolahnya tentang pelajaran menggambar yang dikasih nilai! Helloo..the kids has their own perspective of the world and their surrounding, don't kill the joy of drawing by giving it a low mark. Anyway, that's a whole other story).

Recently, Mc Donald's launched its Champions of Play campaign. A campaign to make parents aware how important it is to get outdoor time everyday. It's popularized by the hashtag #MainDiLuarYuk in Twitter. Of course, I was excited to participate. Mainly because I'm a firm believer that kids need to have outdoor experience as much as possible. Kids activities now are so different than my generations, their activities are much more structured and they are more exposed to screen time, thanks to the growing of kids TV show, smartphones and tablets.

And unfortunately though, living in Jakarta doesn't give the kids as much as opportunity to be outdoor, which is a shame because we're after all a tropical country. But as parents, if we care enough, we just have to make the best of what is available, right?. Here's something to choose from..

For mall alternative, you can always go to Car Free Day on the weekends. Ragunan Zoo is also a fun place to be. Or how about Monas? Surprisingly there's so many things to do there. My kids also love to go to the fish market or to Barito to see pets and other animals. Visiting Taman Makam Pahlawan Kalibata is not bad either as kids can feed deers there.  Don't forget that we also have Senayan area that kids can run, play bike or rollerblading there.

Once in a while when you get to go out with family, pick a place where they have outdoor seating area, even if it's small and they can't run around at least it's something different.

I forgot where I got this quote as it's been on my notes for some times. Simple but powerful. 

 

Purr..Kitty Kitty! :-)
I was taking a picture for Inside Her Bag post in Fashionese Daily when he suddenly jumped on top of the bag. I guess he wanted to be in the pictures too. We got him about two weeks ago from..err Kaskus. So I've bought a pet from the web, a car from eBay :D, I also found the house we live in from rumah123.com. I depend on the Internet a little too much.

Milo is a 3 months old male Persian cat. We loved him a lot. In fact, he got to sleep on my bed at the first night he arrived. I didn't have the heart to leave him all alone in the dark downstairs. He slept like Jibran and Jehan when they were still newborn, snuggling on my chest or right next to my arms that I could feel his breating. The second day he was already familiar with the place and started getting comfortable with the surroundings that he jumped around like crazy. I didn't take him to my room to sleep from then on. But he likes coming to my room in the morning, some times accompanying me in the shower :D..or continuing his sleep on my bed.


Now I understand what the quotes 'Curiosity kills the cat' means. Cat is indeed has a VERY curious mind.

It's always nice to be featured on the topic of blogging. Something I have done since more than a decade ago and will continue to do for more decades to come :). Hopefully the story can at least inspire a few people to start blogging.

As you can see from the picture, my answer is pretty long. I love to share my story, especially in writing. And if I'm asked something, I like to answer it in as detail as possible. But I was quite surprised to see that they didn't edit my answer. Not even a little bit. So when I wrote 'please double check' as a request to the reporter to reconfirm the number of bloggers that we have, it also went published. Needless to say I was amazed :o).

When we travel, we are not the type who will explore the hotel we stay in, especially when we visit a new city. The reason being is because we usually leave the hotel early and come back around 9 or 10. Or even midnight. So it's actually a waste to stay in a nice hotel because we never get a chance to use the facility. But when you travel with two kids, you'll be extra tired at the end of the night so a sizable room equipped with a nice fluffy king size bed with crisp white sheet and little things within reach (the tea pot, refrigerator, microwave, utensils) are always appreciated.

In Sydney, we tried a boutique hotel called Blue Hotel in Woolloomooloo. The building is not just like a regular hotel as it's actually a renovated wharf. It's very unique from the outside as well as in the inside. The room is a loft style so it's pretty big. It's nice if you want to stay for longer period as you can have guest in the living room. The view is a small marina, complete with the yachts and Sydney skyline. There's the famous Harry's Cafe de Wheels next to it, so if you're hungry in the middle of the night, you can always step out for a quick bite. The location is not exactly in CBD but it's not too far of a walk because as soon as you passed Botanical Garden next to it, the view of the Opera House will emerge. Taxi is always in line right at the front. And Sydney Hop on Hop off bus also has a stop right there. Transportation is not an issue.

Too bad we cannot say anything regarding its other facilities because the areas we stepped in were only the lobby and the room. Didn't even check out the swimming pool *sigh*.




 
From the front!
 
 
The side :D
   
Views from the room, the loft-style room, the lobby & lounge. 

I wrote this last March and it's been sitting on the draft list. Yes I have more posts in my draft list than I have in the published list.

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We just had a long weekend and instead of being refreshed, I am now even more restless than ever. I couldn't have a good sleep, I couldn't even eat properly. There are two big decisions I need to make within this week so I've been analyzing the whole situation, thinking about what matters the most. About the past, the present, the future.

There are a lot of factors that need to be considered. Especially since this is a business decision, and I'm not the only one who make the call. Plus, there are many people involved that will be impacted by the decision. I know it would be wise to think long term or to play it safe, you know so our heart won't skip a beat and we can always be comfortable.

But the thing is, even though I was a business student, I have been driven by heart and guts most of the time instead of numbers and facts. I just don't see the fun when everything is too meticulously calculated in the spreadsheet to predict the future. Projection is of course needed. But I don't want it to dominate how a decision is made because after all, it's only a projection. No one knows what the future holds. It's for us to decide.

And sometimes, you just have to take the risk you know. I don't want to be restricted by some data that I know can still be amplified many of times. If you believe it's gonna work and it's within your plan and can be justified by simple logic, you'll find a way to make it work.


So instead of focusing on the numbers, I wandered around these two questions:

What would I do if money is not a problem?

What would I do if I wasn't afraid?

Sheryl Sandberg said question number 2 is the ultimate question she and the people at Facebook, a company that's driven by instinct, often asked themselves.

Why are those two questions important? Simply because those make you set aside all the factors that contribute into your decision making process like worry, fear, money, resources and give room to the important things; what you want the most, what your heart is telling you and what you believe in.

So from now on, that would be the ultimate question I ask when I'm stuck in between several options.

And don't forget that there lies an opportunity cost in every choices we have to make. See which option will bring us to our maximum potential.

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Anyway, so the decision was made and we got to keep the dream alive. Thank you for keeping the faith :)

I'm not talking about kids, mind you :p. I'm talking about the third pillar of Islam. The compulsory charity or known as zakat. Duh serius amat ya!



Karena bulan puasa kemaren sibuk hitung-hitung zakat, jadi kepikiran untuk nulis ini. Urusan zakat ini selalu bikin bingung dan nggak pede, sih. Takut salah hitung (ART perlu dikasih zakat nggak? Apa THR aja cukup? THR enggak bisa dihitung zakat, kan?). Takut kurang dari yang diwajibkan. Takut masih ada yang belum dimasukin ke daftar wajib zakat. Apalagi ada paham yang berbeda kan, ada yang jumlah seluruh tabungannya diwajibkan zakat 2.5%. Ada yang hanya pertambahan pada tahun itu aja yang wajib zakat, bukan dari totalnya. Bingung, deh. Dan karena menghitungnya setahun sekali, kadang suka lupa lagi pas tahun depannya. Jadi setiap tahun memang kaya belajar lagi sih, cari-cari info lagi. Kemaren aja ada beberapa hal baru yang memang saya baru tahu. Mungkin untuk selanjutnya mau coba pakai jasa penghitung zakat, biasanya financial planner punya jasa ini. Pastinya mereka lebih tahu kan, dan juga jadi ada acuan untuk ditanya-tanya.

Selain bingung menghitung, yang bikin bingung juga, mau dikasih ke siapa aja zakatnya? Dulu saya mau tau beres aja sih. Semuanya dikasih ke nyokap biar nyokap yang bagi-bagiin. Orang tua biasanya kan punya daftar yang lebih panjang tuh siapa aja yang berhak dapet bagian. Mereka juga lebih rajin untuk kasih ke orangnya langsung. Tapi lama-lama ngerasa kok kayanya ignorant sekali ya. Lagipula nyokap kan juga manusia, bukan nggak mungkin ada salahnya juga dalam urusan ini. Dan memang sebaiknya kan kalo memberi sesuatu itu langsung aja ke orangnya. Duh trenyuh banget pasti kan ketika yang diberi itu sangat menghargai pemberian kita dan berterima kasih berkali-kali sambil mengucapkan doa untuk kita. Cuma yaa tetep aja bingung siapa aja orang yang berhak, dilihatnya dari mana, carinya di mana? Iya iya banyak sih orang yang hidupnya susah. Tapi nggak kebayang aja kalo harus ke daerah kumuh dan bagi-bagiin, bisa-bisa diserbu orang sekampung, kan?

Jadi setelah itu saya mencoba untuk ngurusin sendiri dan pake sistem 'don't put your eggs in one basket'. Sama lah seperti investasi, sebaiknya jangan di satu instrumen aja, kan. Well this one is an investment too, another kind of investment, jadi treatmentnya kurang lebih sama.

Masih ada sih yang didistribusiin lewat nyokap, lewat ibu mertua. Tapi ada juga yang dititip lewat semacam Dompet Dhuafa dan Rumah Yatim yang tinggal transfer (tetep cari gampangnya!). Ada yang ikutan nyumbang pas kakak ipar lagi ngajak anak-anak yatim piatu buka puasa bersama. Trus ada juga yang ke satu pondok pesantren. Ada yang lewat masjid Al-Ikhlas juga. Enak juga sih kalo lewat masjid yang lebih terorganisir, karena datanya lengkap. Pas serah terima juga kita disuruh baca niat dan doa. Jadi merasa lebih secure aja. Apalagi, yah? Oh paling bagi-bagi rejeki juga sama orang-orang (pemulung, dll) yang ditemuin di jalan. Tapi bukan pemulung jadi-jadian yang jumlahnya tau-tau membludak kalo bulan puasa. Bedainnya gimana? Biasanya sih yang bener pemulung adanya di kompleks-kompleks rumah dan memang lagi kerja, bukan duduk-duduk di pinggir jalan sekeluarga. Trus juga kelihatan pas kita kasih biasanya yang pemulung beneran akan kaget dan menerimanya dengan suka cita. Kalo pemulung jadi-jadian biasanya pas nerima hanya bilang makasih dan tetep dengan memasang muka susah/sedihnya :D. Selain itu, paling kasih lebih ke orang-orang seperti satpam atau tukang parkir atau siapapun yang membantu saya pada saat itu.

Kesannya banyak yah? Padahal sih jumlahnya seadanya :D. Tujuannya sih biar kalau ada yang saya salah kaprah, ternyata orang yang dikasih itu bukan termasuk orang yang berhak menerima zakat, ya nggak fatal-fatal amat jadinya, karena mudah-mudahan yang lain bisa menutupi.

Tahun ini, saya pake kalkulator zakat yang ada di sini. Berguna banget deh, tinggal masukin angka-angka yang diminta, dan dihitungin sama kalkulatornya untuk semua jenis. Dari mulai zakat harta, zakat profesi sampe zakat harta usaha. Saya baru tahu, ternyata untuk zakat profesi, sebenernya yang kena 2.5% itu hanya jumlah uang setelah dipotong kebutuhan rutin, yah?. Dalam rangka mencari aman, saya pilih untuk nggak dipotong kebutuhan rutin, sih. Lagipula udah blur juga lama-lama mana yang penting mana yang kurang penting :D. Ketika keinginan sudah menjadi kebutuhan, judulnya. Lagipula juga karena masih kurang mantep ngitungnya, mendingan dilebih-lebihin dikit lah untuk jaga-jaga, kan.

Trus tahun ini yang baru untuk saya adalah zakat harta usaha. Duarr! Padahal udah punya usaha dari 2009 yaa. Eh tapi kalo tahun lalu bingung juga sih hitung-hitungan asset perusahaannya. Tahun ini karena udah pernah divaluasi, jadi tau deh. Nilai ini dihitung dari uang tunai yang ada di perusahaan, alat produksi, inventori, dll yang dikurangin jumlah hutang dan dikalikan dengan persentase kepemilikan kita di perusahaan tersebut. Alhamdulillah nggak ada hutang :D *penting!*, tapi jumlahnya memang jadi besar. Apalagi sebenernya uangnya nggak ada di kita, kan? Jadi harus dialokasikan dari dana yang lain.Trus tahun ini juga ada hitungan reksadana yang saya nggak terlalu mengikuti kenaikan dan kerugiannya. Jadi harus cek-cek dulu waktu pertama kali beli nilainya berapa dan sekarang udah berapa.

Yah begitulah kurang lebih cerita urusan zakat ini. Mudah-mudahan sih udah di jalan yang bener yah :D. Makanya kadang penasaran sih bagaimana orang lain membagikan zakatnya. Mungkin ada cara-cara lain yang lebih efektif dan efisien?. Maklum lah, masih perlu belajar banyak, nih. Untuk ke depannya, pengennya sih nggak nunggu sampe bulan puasa lagi. Paling enggak setiap tiga bulan sekali dihitung dan dibagikan. Supaya enak nggak punya hutang yang menumpuk. Dan pengennya juga nggak 2.5% lebih sedikit aja...tapi harus bisa paling enggak 5%. Amiiiin!.