unsaid but hopefully well written

The initial title was : "Starting a Journal (or Bullet Journal, or A Meal Planner, or A Planner, or A Weekly To-Do List Even Though I Have Once Told Myself I won't Start Another)". And we will get into that in a bit.

I'm not that good with longtime planning. I mostly goes with the flow and when I have something I want to achieve throughout the year, I will just make my plan around that time. I was good with daily to do list too (when I was at the office) that I make every morning before I start working, but have never keep a dedicated book for yearly planner as long as I remember. 

But in early December, I impulsively bought a notebook for myself. I was on a (very long) train trip to meet my friend in Serpong (yes, that is in the other side of the world from where I live now (sigh)), and just recently moving out from my parents' house, and my husband just bought me a stove (actually that's the initial trigger) and so I began to 'cook' dishes for our dinner and breakfast. Since my cooking vocabulary is limited (and even more limited because we haven't bought a refrigerator yet, so frozen foods are crossed out of my list) I need to write what meal we have had so I can make some variation and not repeating the meal every several days.

I arrived early, so I decided that I will go to the bookstore on the mall and bought several pens for work (aren't I having a good job in which I still need to have colorful pens? yay!). And while I was on it, why didn't I bought a notebook too? I thought. That's how I finally bought my notebook.

I have never bought a yearly or monthly or weekly planner even though I have thought about it because I'm not very sure if I can committed to it and I don't think a pre-made planner is suitable for me. And when I found out about bullet journal, I was actually buying myself a grid notebook (but actually never really understand the system until several days ago after watching this) and it wasn't work for me either at that time. Another reason was because I was once a diary writer, and when I write a diary, I literally write everything in chronological time. I stopped, first because I hardly write anymore in the uni and second, I found out that there are feelings I don't want to re-visit in the future, so even though it's hard, even though sometimes I had this urge to write, I hold myself from having another journal (or anything remotely close to paper in which I can write private things into)(fyuh).

So when I was buying the notebook, I told myself that I only wanted to make a meal planner table and maybe write on some recipes on it. But of course I ended up having a weekly table and somehow added a tracker for the month. I also watched a whole lot of bullet journal videos, and found out that you can basically suit the planner to your needs (like adding a shopping list, reading list, etc. which in original bullet journal, you call a collection, and even omit systems you find it hard to use and that's why I can't quite call my notebook as a bullet journal). I have plan to write about the notebook in the blog if this system works for me in several months (maybe around April or May) and I'm totally excited to see will this system still work until then.

Cheers for a good (and relatively organized) year ahead :)

Ever since I left for Malaysia in 2015, she already against me traveling solo, or traveling with friends. She didn't really like me going somewhere new only with friends and not my family who can be responsible about me. But since my father allowed me to go, she went on with his decision. That's how I travel to South Korea in 2016. After that, my mother always said that it is better for me not to go again unless I go with my brother or, a husband.

Instead of being against that rule, I actually fine with it. Maybe it was me knowing that she only want the best for me and trying to protect me from any harm, or my inner self who wanted to get married (lol), or maybe my true homebody self who surfaced. I am a homebody on my core and not actually going wasn't really an issue for me even though I still had my traveling bucket list.

On that condition, apparently I still had the chance visit Singapore with my brother and Yogyakarta with my friends in early 2017 and got myself several work trips to Bandung in the middle of the year. I actually had been offered to visit Brebes around November, but decline it because... I was just lazy (ha!)

My traveling in 2017 had been rather personal and slow and had this nice lingering feeling to it.

In 2018, now that I had a husband, I haven't really thought about traveling together. It was on the back of my mind, but with me still adjusting with life and all that, I'm still going to keep it on my mind for a while and not actually doing it. Unlike the couple of years ago, in which I had this personal goal to visit one country for every year, I think I don't have a set goals for traveling this year. Funny how I was always saying that I can't go before I got married or my brother come to his senses and agree to accompany me traveling last year as a reason on why I didn't plan any trip ahead. Now that I have one, I don't really want it... for now.

My other reason is because I think I need to be more careful about whatever that is allowed and not allowed in what I believe in. I have to admit that my current biggest concern about traveling is how to be responsible about what I eat overseas. Of course I can actually work my way around it, like looking for halal restaurant and bring my own instant food like abon, cup noodles, etc., but it's been on my mind for a while and I guess it plays a big part (aside from me going back to my root as a homebody).

Nevertheless, cheers for an unexpected journey in 2018 (if any :))!