Wow what a year 2020 was. I still remember how I spent 2020 New Year’s Eve. R and I went to our friend’s place for dinner, we met everybody and left early to go to LA’s Grand Park at Downtown, where LA’s annual NYE party was held. Much like NYC’s Times Square, only in smaller scale. It was both of our first time going to the event although it was an annual thing. R said he usually just spend NYE at home or with his friends. We were excited to be in the crowd, there were small stages with live music, photo booths, lots of food trucks.. we definitely felt the vibe and excitement. Then came the countdown. To be completely honest it wasn’t major but now, looking back, it seemed like it was everything. Light show, music, and mass countdown, shouting “Happy New Year!” to fellow Angelenos.. wow. If only we knew what was going to happen in the following months…
Continue reading “2020”Tag: 2020
Serba Serbi Jualan Barang
Haloo kembali lagi di Selasa Indonesia! Kali ini ceritanya mau ngomongin soal proses jualan barang bekas kami. Sebenernya jualan barang ini bukan hal yang baru, biasanya setiap ganti musim saya suka jualin baju – baju yang kira – kira udah nggak sparks joy kalo kata Marie Kondo, atau yang udah gak muat haha.
Tapi berhubung kami abis proses pindahan, ternyata banyak barang di studio kami yang lama yang rasanya nggak cocok dibawa ke rumah baru ini. Contohnya sofa bed, kami gak ngerasa perlu lagi karena di rumah baru kan ada 2 kamar, jadi kalau ada tamu bisa nginap di kamar aja. Terus ada banyak lagi barang – barang printilan yang ternyata kami nggak perlu, jadilah mulai sebulan terakhir sebelum pindah saya cukup aktif jual – jualin barang.
Yang pertama saya jual tuh sofa bed yang tadi saya ceritain. Sofa bed nya keluaran Ikea, tapi suami beli secondhand juga dari temannya yang mau balik ke Indonesia, 3 tahun lalu sebelum saya datang. Sebenernya sofa bed nya masih berfungsi baik, tapi studio kami tuh sempat bocor jadi sofa nya banyak noda air yang saya gak tau gimana cara bersihinnya. Sempet ragu bakal laku terjual, ternyata begitu saya iklanin di facebook marketplace, laku kayak kacang goreng! Banyak banget orang yang nanyain dan lakunya cepet banget. Yang bikin saya masih geleng kepala, lakunya sama kayak harga temen waktu suami beli dari temennya. Padahal saya udah jelasin semua kondisi dan kasih foto juga.
Begitu liat sofa bed laku kayak gitu, saya makin semangat dong. Langsung cari – cari apalagi yang bisa di jual hahaha. Emang dasar mental sales ngga bisa ilang. Saya jual alat bikin kopi Aeropress yang lama ga pernah dipake, laku cepet juga. Jual make up organizer yang bisa muter2 dari bambu, laku 15 menit dan barang diambil 1 jam kemudian! Seru kan hehe.
Sampai akhirnya saya jual kulkas mini kami, karena di rumah sekarang sudah tersedia kulkas, jadi nggak perlu lah kulkas sampai 2 segala. Seperti namanya, kulkas mini yah kecil ya kan. Saya tulis listing nya “1 door refrigerator”. Saya pasang foto tampak depan, foto pintu di buka supaya keliatan layout nya. Fotonya kebetulan di sebelah sofa, jadi harusnya sih keliatan kalau kulkas tersebut ukurannya ngga besar sesuai skala nya. Cuma…. saya nggak taro ukuran.
Begitu iklannya tayang, langsung ada yang tanya dan mau beli. Datanglah orangnya, oma – oma sama cucu nya. Begitu si oma lihat, si oma geleng2 kepala, “no, too small”. Dalam hati saya, lha kan emang kulkas mini… tapi yaudah, batal laku. Akhirnya saya tambahin dimensi, tinggi x lebar.
Besoknya ada lagi yang mau lihat. Ibu2 Asia. Udah ngobrol panjang lebar pas ketemu (kayak tante2 Asia gituuu haha), eh begitu liat kulkasnya, lagi2 dia bilang, “oh this is small, I thought it’s a big one”. Dalam hati mikir, uhm hallooo.. kan udah ditulis juga dimensi nya. Tapi yaudahhh.. mau ngomong apa hahaha.
Akhirnya saya suruh R bediri samping kulkasnya, saya foto setengah badan, buat tunjukin itu kulkas tinggi nya cuma se-paha suami. AKHIRNYA LAKU! itu pun di tawar $10 lebih murah tapi yaudah deh, udah lelah saya dan masih perlu jual beberapa barang lainnya.
Selain facebook marketplace, di daerah sini juga ada toko secondhand yang terima jual barang bekas. Kalo di toko ini sih cocoknya buat jual baju – baju yang udah nggak terpakai dalam jumlah banyak, karena mereka kasih harga murah banget, cuma antara $1-$3. Tapi kalau bawa barang se kardus, pulang – pulang bisa bawa $100, lumayan lah yaaa hehehe.
Pilihan lain kalau kamu mau keluarin barang – barang yang nggak terpakai, bisa juga di donasikan ke toko barang bekas non-profit, misalnya goodwill atau salvation army. Cuma yang saya masih bingung, sejak pindah kesini, saya tuh banyak banget dikasih mukena… awalnya senang punya mukena warna warni tapi sejak mulai menganut prinsip minimalis dan merasa mukena cukup punya 2 aja (1 buat spare), saya bingung mukena yang lain mau didonasikan kemana, karena semuanya masih bagus banget dan kalo liat di masjid sini, yang pakai mukena itu orang Indonesia doang… hehehe. Akhirnya masih saya simpan, buat di donasikan kalau nanti saya pulang kampung.
Gimana pengalaman kamu jual barang – barang yang nggak terpakai? Ada cerita seru nggak? š
We Have a New Address!
Today marks the 5th day of living in the new house. We officially moved to our new place right at the start of November. Since we are renting from family, they are generous enough to give us the key to the house prior to our move, so we had gone back and forth in October to slowly move our stuff and also clean and prepare the house before we officially move in.
We are still living in California, still in greater Los Angeles, although different cities and zip codes now. While I was going back and forth last month, and during the last couple of days, I began to notice the differences between the two areas. It looks like my old house has a more suburbia feel compared to this new one. I thought they would be the same, since both are in suburban Los Angeles.
My old place was located in a very quiet neighborhood with big roads, has a big neighborhood park but it’s almost impossible to travel by foot or public transportation to get around. I did it when I just moved to the US and before I was able to drive, but trust me it was not ideal.
To my surprise, my new neighborhood is very walkable! the house is located in the “downtown” neighborhood of the city, and although the road is more narrow (downside: it’s harder to find street parking should we want to host a big group… but who wants to host anyway, with covid? hehe), it’s within walking distance to the city hall, restaurants, main street, supermarket, and a weekly farmers market! AAAH I’m so happy! Since I left Bournemouth, I never lived in a place where I could walk to get essentials. This gives me so much joy already. Should I get a job in downtown Los Angeles, there’s also a Metro station nearby which I can take comfortably. The city also provides a free shuttle to get around downtown and I believe public transportation should be more accessible… but we’ll see. I can’t wait to explore more!
Another downside besides the lack of street parking is also the lack of Asian food in this neighborhood.. HAHAHA. I used to be able to get boba so easily and there’s a lot of good Asian food in my old neighborhood. Here I had to drive 15-25 minutes away, or just go back to my old neighborhood if I crave for good Asian food (the old neighborhood is 25 – 30 minutes away).
But so far I’ve been loving the experience of moving out – moving in and settling in. Although we are not yet homeowners but for the first time ever we now have our own space and I have the liberty to decorate… and I now have my own little reading nook! ⤠I hope this means that I would still be able to keep up with my Goodreads challenge til the rest of the year hehehe.
Anyway, back to unpacking! I still have to figure out how to organize my closet and there’s still a couple of boxes that haven’t been opened (mostly R’s stuff.. I moved from Indonesia 3 years ago so I don’t have a lot of stuff with me). It has been a fun and it definitely takes my mind off the stress of being unemployed… but I trust that everything will fall into place at the right time, just like our move. More house update to come and wish us luck as we transform this space to a home! š
The One Where I’m Job Hunting During a Pandemic
It’s no news but I have been actively looking for a job. You see I moved here 3 years ago, leaving behind a career in Indonesia. I knew I wanted to keep working after I got married, but I wasn’t able to work immediately after I moved here. So while I waited, I did some remote freelancing work, and once I was able to work, I took on casual work here and there while I settle down and trying to figure out my next move. I then decided to go back to school, enrolled myself in a one-year long Digital Marketing certificate program.
Continue reading “The One Where I’m Job Hunting During a Pandemic”Summer 2020
The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind to me. Significant events kept happening, some expected, some caught us by surprise. I found myself in disbelief when I woke up yesterday and realized that we are already in September. Whew, time flies so fast this year!
Continue reading “Summer 2020”That Time We Visited Joshua Tree National Park During The Pandemic
Last week we went to Joshua Tree National Park, the closest National Park to our home. It took us only 2,5 hours drive, even shorter that it would take us to drive to my in-laws house! š We’ve booked an AirBnb a while back and just so it happened, there was a heatwave warning during the weekend we planned to go! We could’ve cancelled but didn’t want to deal with the hassle, so we still ended up going anyway…
To be completely honest, Joshua Tree was not my favorite National Park. When it comes to nature, I am more drawn to trees than rocks. But we were so desperately wanted to be out and get fresh air, so we went.
Continue reading “That Time We Visited Joshua Tree National Park During The Pandemic”