Annabelle of the Forest

NEW RELEASE! December 2011

A sweet enchanting fairy tale “Annabelle of the Forest” , written by Indonesian’s author mellyberry with cover-back design and image illustrations by Indonesian’s artist Ykha Amelz, is now AVAILABLE in online stores WORLDWIDE. (*Printed in USA. Published in UK and USA.)

For more information about the book and how to place an order, please visit http://www.authorhouse.co.uk/Bookstore/bookdetail.aspx?Book=368011 or simply search “Annabelle of the Forest” in http://www.amazon.com website and http://www.goggle.com

Promotional sales for Indonesian’s market will be available after Christmas 2011. Stay tune!

Synopsis:
When Prince Marius, the rightful heir of the Kingdom, embarked on his ultimate journey that would grant him his throne, fate intercepted and brought him to Annabelle, a mysterious girl who lived in the Enchanted Forest.
As Marius unfolded the girl’s mysterious and magical past, he’d soon find himself torn between difficult choices, his duty to his People and to unmask the traitor within his Kingdom, or his feeling for the girl.

“Annabelle of the Forest” is a story about finding your courage and following your heart. It’s a story that will forever remind us on what real beauty truly means.

Genre : Children Junior Novel
Language : English
ISBN : 978 – 1 – 46788 – 568 - 3
Cover/size : Soft cover / 8.5” x 8.5” (21.5 x x21.5 cm)
Pages : 56 / color
Price : USD. 24.99

Lebaran Holiday

This past Idul Fitri holiday marked the first Eid holiday that we spent outside our hometown. Usually, in the past few years, every Eid holiday was spent meditating at home, with me being a faithful nanny/maid 24/7. Enough said, we planned this holiday thoughtfully and decided to visit a-not-too-far place for our destination. Tickets, hotel vouchers and passports checked, we finally landed at our destination, only to realize that we weren’t exactly flying away from our hometown despite the passport and the different currency. We still vacationed in a place we called home, complete with its culture, its language, its food and most importantly, its people. This place, which we thought so carefully in the beginning of our trip, was called Singapore “Welcome (back) to the (2nd) Indonesia”.

Singapore was swarmed with Indonesians everywhere. This holiday particularly, the Indonesians went vacationing with their big families, stretching out to 3 generations mostly, plus uncles, aunties, cousins and many more. Everywhere we went, stress-faced Indonesian mommies taking care of their babies and toddlers were to be seen. Some were lucky enough to have a nanny or maid trailing behind them. The bittersweet of Lebaran holiday only true Indonesians can understand.

As hard as we tried to avoid Orchard and the hotels there, we ended up surrounded by all Indonesian guests in our hotel, the brand new spectacular MBS. The check-in process was also spectacular, in both lines and times. It took average 20 minutes waiting time to reach the check-in counter. This iconic hotel was definitely not just an ordinary hotel, mind you, so they tried very hard to compensate the counter’s waiting time by offering many fringe benefits such as circulating welcome drinks, fruits, roses, having clowns/mimes performing, and organizing a live musical symphony in their lobby. Seriously, who wanted to listen to them playing classical music when we were so tired and upset from queuing in lines? But, aside from the classical symphony, the rest of the benefits were appreciated.
For those of you who had spent time in MBS before, you know what I am describing here. This hotel was not just a hotel. It was a new icon for Singapore and its presence has lifted the bar for this industry. This was our second time in MBS, so, unlike other new comers, we skipped the lobby photo taking sessions and the “wows” and “ahhs”. Also, my feet were too sore from standing up too long in the lobby.

Fanatisme

Pernah merasa fanatik terhadap sesuatu? Fanatisme yang berlebihan biasanya kurang sehat. Pada umumnya, orang fanatik cenderung melihat sesuatu dari sudut pandang dirinya sendiri dan terlalu mengagungkan apa yang di-fanatik-in nya tadi. Dengan begitu, orang fanatik akan praktis beranggapan bahwa yang beda dengan keyakinannya itu salah atau kalah status. Pendek kata, kalau saya diperbolehkan berpendapat, orang fanatik cenderung tertutup dan kurang mau mengerti pendapat orang lain yang berbeda.

Namanya manusia, apa saja bisa dijadikan obyek fanatisme, dari urusan berat sampai urusan ringan. Dari masalah yang sensitif sampai masalah guyonan. Sejarah telah membuktikan betapa banyak kesalahpahaman, perkara kriminalitas, bahkan perang yang terjadi karena fanatisme yang berlebihan, terutama fanatisme akan agama dan ras.

Saya bukan orang yang fanatik terhadap agama, maksudnya agama saya sendiri. Saya juga bukan orang yang fanatik dengan ras tertentu. Ras saya ya sudah dari sononya, tidak bisa diganti lagi. Saya cukup bangga dengan tingkat fanatisme saya untuk dua hal ini, yang notabene tidak fanatik sama sekali. Oleh karena itu, saya suka heran dan kehabisan napas kalau berbicara dengan orang yang sangat fanatik dengan kedua hal di atas. Capek ngomongnya, karena menurut orang fanatik, yang mereka percayai selalu paling benar dan kepercayaan orang lain sudah pasti “kurang’ benar. Memang tak dapat dipungkiri bahwa kedua subyek ini termasuk yang paling sensitif buat kebanyakan orang. Itulah sebabnya saya berani bersyukur bahwa, untuk kedua hal tersebut, saya masih dapat melihat persamaan diantara perbedaan dan menghargai perbedaan diantara sesama.

Sialnya, saya termasuk orang yang fanatik di hal lain. Saya sangat fanatik dengan zodiac saya. Untung saja urusan zodiac ini bukan termasuk urusan kenegaraan yang membutuhkan kementrian khusus. Kalau tidak, sudah pasti saya menjadi sesosok manusia yang sangat menjengkelkan bagi orang lain, terutama yang berbeda zodiac. Jangankan urusan zodiac teman, lha wong zodiac suami saya saja sering saya remehkan, karena menurut saya, zodiac lain di dunia ini jauh kalah kelas dengan zodiac-ku tercinta. Well, I guess I am not a perfect non-fanatic person after all. Untunglah, di balik kegilaan fanatisme saya ini, saya masih bisa berperilaku sehat. Buktinya, saya tidak melulu berteman atau berkumpul dengan teman se-zodiac saja. Teman-teman saya terbentang dari zodiac Carpicorn sampai zodiac Sagitarius. Mungkin selain akal sehat, faktor lain yang membatasi fanatisme saya ini adalah kesulitan untuk bersosialisasi dengan orang lain jika kalimat pertama yang saya ucapkan adalah “Zodiac kamu apa? Kalau beda zodiac, saya gak mau temenan sama kamu.”

Kid Bully

We all hate bullies. We watch too many American TVs that show how bullies behaving badly in high school. Beware, my fellow parents. Bullies had hit home, and it comes much much sooner than high school. We are talking elementary soon.

When my 8 year old boy went home and complained to me about some of his classmates, I closed one of my eyes and thought that this was a phase in his school life that he has to go through, even when he told me that one of the boys had physically assaulted him twice. Then, the day came when he asked me the meaning of some words. The bad ones! The harsh ones! Believe me; you don’t want to be caught off guard trying to comprehend where the hell these kids learned the foul language. When I asked my boy why he wanted to know, he answered because some of those boys called him those things.

My motherly primate instinct kicked in right away. WHO DARED TO CALL MY KID THOSE NAMES? WHO DARED TO ATTACK MY INNOCENT SON? WHO ARE THESE KIDS?
With my emotion boiling up to 100C, my first instinct was to tell my son to fight back. To retaliate. To make those kids suffer. Yell back, shove them, will ya? I think I scared my son even more during this not-so-proud counseling moment. He must think that his mom suffered from acute multiple personality disorder.
Things were not better at home when my maid advised my son to punch those kids like a man. No, no, wrong advice!
When my husband heard the story in the evening, his exaggerate fatherly hormone kicked in even harder. He told me to enroll our son in any martial art classes and to show him more fighting/war movies. He was barely breathing air when he jolted down instructions at me, then moved on to preparing our son for battle. You have no idea how confuse our son was. He was such an innocent kid, definitely not ready yet to stand up against his bullies, and here we were – his parents – telling him to fight an eye for an eye kind of thing.

Kaum ibu dan urusan mengemudi

Sama seperti urusan barang elektronik, mesin, dan pertukangan, hal mengemudi juga termasuk di dalam salah satu daftar pekerjaan yang diyakini akan lebih baik hasilnya jika dikerjakan oleh pria. Sudah berabad-abad lamanya, kita selalu disisihkan oleh pria di dalam urusan berkendara. Malahan ada buku yang menjelaskan secara ilmiah, mengapa pria lebih baik dari wanita dalam hal mengemudi. Menurut para ahli tersebut, hal ini berhubungan dengan cara kerja otak yang berbeda antara pria dan wanita. Anyway, tulisan ini tidak memihak kepada salah satu jender dan tidak ditulis dari segi ilmiah pula. Tetap dalam keamburaduannya, kita hanya mau mengamati suka duka mengemudi dari kacamata kita sendiri.

Entah kenapa, kalau kita melihat ibu-ibu seusia kita mengemudi, otomatis hanya ada 2 kemungkinan. Kemungkinan pertama adalah rasa kasihan : “Ckckck pantesan amburadul nyetirnya, lha wong ibu-ibu.” Kemungkinan kedua adalah rasa jengkel : “Ampunnn ampunn! Pantesan amburadul. Dasar ibu-ibu!”

Menurut saya, mengemudi itu sama dengan pekerjaan lainnya yang memerlukan waktu latihan. Kita menjadi bisa karena biasa. Kalau dulu waktu SD kita hanya mengetik dengan 2 jari, lambat laun menjadi 10 jari. Anak batita bisa membaca 3 huruf, sekarang kita bisa membaca ensiklopedia. Bisa karena biasa bukan? Nyetir juga (seharusnya) sama saja.

Hanya segelintir manusia dari kalangan kita yang mahir dalam mengemudi. Namun kebanyakan dari kita pas-pasan saja teknik mengemudinya. Bagaikan tingkatan kungfu, tidak semua orang bisa menjadi master shaolin. Yang menjadi master shaolin biasanya sudah berlatih tenaga dalam , bertapa bertahun-tahun, dan sudah mendalami kitab rahasia.

a big THANK YOU

I am saying a BIG thank you wholeheartedly to my husband, and especially to my dearest friends - here and there, near and far - who have been supporting my alter ego, mellyberry, from the very beginning - before the books, before the blog, before nothing.
No words can ever truly express my feeling of comfort in seeing familiar faces and encouraging smiles among the stranger crowds.

Thanks for putting aside your valuable time in attending the event, in driving through Jakarta's impossible traffic, in buying and reading and promoting my books and my blog. But most of all, thanks for patting my back and believing that dream, any kind of dreams - big or small, crazy or sane, possible or impossible - with God's blessing and hard work, can come true :)

EVENT

Cereal Nation & Aksara Chidren's Book Club, presents:

OVER THE RAINBOW

a celebration of colours in stories, art, music and food

Sunday, 19th June 2011

2pm - 5pm

at Aksara Kemang

Jl. Kemang Raya No. 8B

South jakarta

Listen to Jirapah's songs and mellyberry's stories!

Learn to draw with artists from Kelir (Kelompok Ilustrasi Cerita Anak) 

in a free workshop for age 3+!

Learn to cook with Chef Nation in a free cooking class for age 4-10

Shop till you drop at the children's books sale and Cereal Nation corner

Indulge in sweet and savoury treats at Chef Nation bake sale

To sign up for the free workshops, send an email to acbc@aksara.com 

with subject line: Kelir drawing class or Chef Nation cooking class

mellyberry children books

Rainbow

Will it be nice if we only play with people who are similar to us? People who wear the same color of clothes, eat the same color of food, or play the same color of toys? Will we be happy if everything we own - pets, cars, or houses - are in the same color?
No? You don't think so? Well, some folks in this story thought otherwise. Let's see if what they thought was right.

Why Animals Can't Talk

A long time ago, both animals and humans were able to speak. But, one of them wanted something more. Did they get what they wanted? And how did greed reward them in the end?

'Slide to unlock' Parenting

“Now is a fast paced digital era.” Got it!
“Everything must be fast or else.” Check!
“Speed, speed, speed!” Agreed!

Inevitably, we are also becoming the generation of smart gadgets. Long gone is the generation of mobile phones, desktop computers or laptops that require a certain amount of time to reboot, to start up and to shut down. With the Apple products streaming down into the market, we are so spoiled by the speed (and the simplicity) of that "slide to unlock" button. It takes us only zero point zero zero second for the gadget to start up and completely running, assuming your service provider has done their job.


Speed. Simplicity. Comfort.
That's me and my partner gadgets. I demand nothing less than speed, simplicity and comfort. In my relationship with other human being, I stay close to the quality that my gadgets have provided me. That includes the way I run my work life, my social life, and yes, my family life.

In parenting, I'd love to manage my kids through speed, simplicity, and comfort (to me). In reality, children are not always up to speed, they are not always simple to handle, and they are not always stay in our comfort zone. I know that children require more effort and time to be understood and to be nurtured. I read dozens of books and articles about parenting. I consider myself the modern type of parent. You know, the one who is cool, well informed and democratic.

Quoteasbun #2 ; March 2011

1. Kissing is like cooking. It takes so many ingredients and so much emotion to make it perfect.

2. Marriage is like dancing. Depending on the songs, each partner must take turn in leading the dance.

3. Never ever underestimate the little things that build up your comfort zone. A tiny weeny crack on them will send you gasping for air, like a big fish stranded on land.

Quoteasbun #1; March 2011 edition

The center of the Universe
You are not the center of the Universe; the Sun is. But, if you must insist that you are, then, be more like our Sun. The Sun occasionally allows Earth or Moon to pass its orbit, which resulting in moments we call eclipse. In short, not everything around you is always about you. Be wise and be sensitive to other people's need and feeling.

Negativity
Negative thinking people often fail to embrace the positive things that happen to them. Instead of showing real appreciation, they stay persistent in their negativity till their worst thoughts are proven correct.

Be like water
Love a person who loves you back like you are his/her drinking water. Always pure and forever in need of you.
Don't waste your love on someone who loves you like you are his/her dessert. Only for five minutes pleasure and usually sinful to the waist.

mellyberry

But.. You are Old!

The Journey of the Clown Kids

1.

After watching Rapunzel for the 10th times this week, my husband and I casually chatted with our 3 yeard old Nina about the meaning and the importance of love. To enhance her understanding, we inserted ourselves into the illustration.
“So, Nin, Mama is like Rapunzel, and Papa is like the Handsome Prince,” my husband began describing.
Nina’s eyes looked puzzled. “But.., you are not. You are OLD,” came her final verdict.

2.

I usually showed the pictures which I took at family/friend’s gatherings to my kids. Vanity questions usually followed, such as,” Did we all look pretty, Mike, in this picture?” My 8 year old boy would glance quickly at my phone screen and shrugged,” Your friends are all aunties.” “Yeah, so? Aren’t we pretty?” I insisted. He then answered, boredom was clear in his tone, “You and your friends are all old, Ma.” OK, time to do my math. Old = …… ?

3.

Mike was head over heels playing beyblade. He has been teaching his sister how to do it. Looking at how cute they were, mumbling questions and instructions to each other, I teased them, “Teach me too, Mike. I want to learn too.” Without even looking at me, he answered,” This is for kids, Ma. You are too old to play.”

Menuju kehidupan yang lebih langsing

Problema klasik post-holiday di kalangan manusia awam adalah bertambahnya ukuran lingkar perut, pinggang, dan paha akibat pola dan jadwal makan yang berantakan. Pada saat liburan, kita makan berdasarkan mood, bukan need. Happy mood makan, tired mood makan, shopping mood makan. Kesuksesan sebuah liburan diukur dari keberhasilan kita memaksimalkan kapasitas mood makan. Maka tak heran bila banyak orang ingin dirinya bertambah langsing sepulang liburan. Paling tidak, kembali ke ukuran semula lah. Saya tak terkecuali. Apalagi setelah dikomentari kiri kanan,"Gendutan ya, Melllll..."

Jadilah saya serius merumuskan rencana untuk menuju kehidupan yang lebih langsing. Enaknya kalau punya tujuan yang sama dengan teman-teman seperjuangan. Disambut baik dan dijalankan bersama-sama. Ternyata, urusan diet itu susah sekali. Selalu ada rangsangan buat makan. Selalu ada alasan untuk membuka kulkas dan mengunjungi dapur/kantin, dan mengintip meja makan. Niat dan disiplin diri sendiri yang kokoh sangat penting untuk kesuksesan sebuah diet. *ehm*

Tidak hanya satu tujuan langsing yang ingin saya sukseskan tahun ini. Saya punya dua target kehidupan langsing. Selain langsing fisik, saya juga ingin langsing pikiran. Artinya, saya tidak mau terlalu banyak mikir yang berat dan tidak-tidak. Saya tidak mau membebani pikiran saya dengan pikiran negatif dan rasa cemas yang berlebihan. Ini semua membuat pikiran saya gemuk, kelebihan lemak jahat yang tak perlu. Kalau mau langsing fisik saja susah, langsing pikiran adalah juaranya. Jika skala kesulitan langsing badan itu 10, skala untuk langsing pikiran adalah 1000. Susaaah pol!

Tangled : A (not) Princess Story

I've never realized how complicated my life was until I forgot some of my documents' passwords. Oh yes, don’t worry. I've got an emergency document that enlists all of my important documents and passwords, specially made for a situation like this. Unless, in my recent scenario, I forgot the password to that so-called emergency document too. It's like Alibaba, the King of Thieves, got himself stranded in front of his own treasure cave because he forgot how to "open sesame" it.
Come to think of it, I forgot more than half of my banking passwords, my internet this and that passwords and the numbers on my luggage locks. Geez, I even forgot my own mobile number sometimes, let alone its SIM card password.

Do we have to memorize so many passwords in our life? Remembering families’ important days and events has already occupying quite a number of spaces in my brain. With my age catching up, I found myself depending more and more to my other smart gadgets to do my memorizing. Thank goodness we have facebook to help remind us of other people’s birthdays, unless… one day I forgot my facebook password. Heaven forbids something unexpected happen to my helping gadgets. Don’t crash! Don’t lose it! Don’t hang! Just don’t…!

This little thing called Holiday

The problem with long holiday is that we rarely realized that it had already started in the beginning of it; dropped dead bored in the middle of it; and begged mercifully for an extension at the end of it.

“What is it with you people?” asked Holiday frustrated. “Don’t I look tempting enough for you to be savored and enjoyed unconditionally?”

Time came in, answering Holiday’s frustration. “Nahh, you’ll get used to it. It’s just this little thing with human. They took us for granted sometimes.” Happiness moved lazily beside Time,” Yeah. That happened with me too. It’s said to be part of their journey to learn, to be appreciative.”

Holiday shrugged,” Oh well, there’ll be more holiday to come. At least they cry over me at the end of the each holiday. That means they love me, right?”

RIGHT! So…right!

*Note from mellyberry:
This is what happens when my brain is still in holiday mode and my schedule has (already) force me to work.

Woohoo! Holiday!

Things that only the Clown Kids did

Bali 2010

1. Ate Sushi Tei 3x in Bali, as if they’ve never ever tasted it anywhere else before. In Jakarta, for example.

2. Fell into the fish pond while feeding the fish. Not once. But twice. Granted to entertain the hotel guests and staff.

3. Took fresh bread from the buffet table to be fed to the fish. They got scolded by the waiters. We pretended that these Clown kids were not ours.

4. Scratched by a squirrel while feeding it with peanuts. That was 1-0 for the squirrel.

5. Blew out the candles that lit the pathway to a romantic restaurant in Karma Kandara. “Wait, they are not birthday candles, kids,” said the concierge lady with a smile.

6. Messed out the art stuff in every art shops from Ubud to Seminyak. As if looking and admiring was not enough for these kids. They had to touch, rearrange, break and criticize some of the stuff in every shops. Oh, the horror in the shopkeepers’ faces. We had to buy something from the stores as our way to apologize.