It's funny sometimes when I thought about it, my flavor palates are different now when I'm younger. For example, I didn't like Earl Grey tea for the longest time because.. I thought they smell horrible, like old tea that's kept in a warehouse for a very long time. Until one day, the bubble tea shop selling earl grey milk tea - with bubbles of course. I thought, what a smooth and fragrant tea that I'm drinking. Bubble tea days are over now, well, at least I don't buy from outside shop not because not that they are not great, they are so nice that I convinced they use a lot of sugar (although I always ask for the lowest percentage. FYI, I'm cutting down some sugar, including sweet drinks, soda, ice cream, cakes.... and to replace the craving, nowadays I drink earl grey tea + milk - no sugar. 

I didn't like Pu-er tea, because well, smell and taste funny, but one day we ate heavy and oily lunch. One of my colleague brought Pu-er tea and she said it will flush down all the oiliness from your mouth, and it's true. I feel better after drinking one. 

When I was younger, I don't like herbal soup, because it's like drinking medicine, nowadays I feel a bit healthier when I drink herbal soup. 

I hate vegetable juice that my mum always make when I'm home, it contains celery, bitter gourd, bell peppers, cucumber, apple. It taste bearable with apple, but it smells horrible. Nowadays, I don't even smell it, just to think of the health benefit I will have drinking the vegetable juice. 

Is this me getting older? 

I love cooking, and baking. Well, maybe not so much baking because it needs a lot of time and patience, also cleaning up is an effort. I also love to illustrate recipes, and I put some in this link www.theydrawandcook.com/artists/lina-kartika . All the recipes there also I uploaded here, because it's easier to see them. Also, as I'm moving to new place now, I have more time to cook! I will add in more recipes as I go along. Please enjoy them, also feel free to feedback and comments! 

I've been busy because of the move to the new place, also some days after that, my parents were visiting. For a few days my mum was not feeling very well, so we didn't go out that much, and spent some time to bake sugar cookies. I thought of adding plain white fondant and color it. I thought using fondant made of marshmallows would be better, but using icing could be simpler. My kitchen was a mess after that!
So, here's all the cookies I drew.

Today is 2 weeks since I moved to a new place. Finally settled down (well, not all my stuff is unpacked), I will slowly. I missed only 1 box.
The house is a bit old, and when I moved, it's not cleaned properly, so we need to do some cleaning. No internet (finally have one after one week, last week), and we still have one big issue, we have 2 bathrooms, one without shower. So, the owner will need to install one. I hope immediately. 

So, the day I moved is 1st of August, and it's a workday. I scheduled 9 - 10 am move using a company called Cheap Movers Singapore. I searched for mover company online and they seems to have a decent reviews (just not that many, caution!). So I contacted the person (seems to be reliable). She quoted 100 SGD for all my stuff (which I thought not so much). My other housemate use Lalamove, which I saw the reviews are so bad. But turned out the person is quite decent and have a good attitude. After I said ok to use them, I just realized, it's not actually called Cheap Movers Singapore - it's Tip Top Movers. (different name, also caution!). I did ask, and the person just said, it's their subcontractor. 

The company also said they will lend me boxes. So the day when they supposed to come with the boxes (I only borrowed 5 boxes), they mentioned around 3-5 pm, that's why I stayed and work from home. That day they were late and reached my place only 7 pm. (This is totally bad sign! and it's not the actual move yet!!!!). The day of moving, I msged the person at 9 am, and he said "Mover is on the way" (Lies!, all lies! I don't appreciate people lying or doesn't appreciate people's time!) at 10 am, somebody called me and said "I will be there before 10.30 am", by 10.20 am, I called the person and he said, "oh, I will be there in 15 mins. I'm on the road now", after 15 mins, nothing happen and I called again (of course), he said "I told you I will be there in 15 mins ma?" Excuse me! Now is pass 15 mins that's why I called you?. In the end, he reached my place at 11 am. 1 hour from the max limit. - also, I booked 9 am - does that mean he was late by 2 hours? 

I went into the same truck as my items, he apologized about being late, but also asked for more money because I have more items than what I was quoted. I don't feel like paying for any service at all to be honest, but I add in 20 SGD - because I have no choice. But seriously, in the receipt was 100 SGD, and I paid more - so where does the 20 SGD goes to? His own pocket. sure. and the worse, in the truck, there is a lady- which I suspect is his girlfriend and she hugged him when he's driving. So unprofessional. I gave bad reviews on Google, only for them to reply, sorry for the inconveniences, we will try to improve our service.

During the ride, he was called by several other people (which supposed to be customers, and the office), they all complained because his being not on time (of course). I was surprised in Singapore still have this kind. I thought people are always punctual. It seems that they accept too many jobs out of their capacity, and what happened next? Surely they cannot cope with it. I regret engaging this company and would not recommend to anybody. Lalamove is similar like Grab I think. (sometimes you get good driver/bad driver, and there is no ratings showing), but my friend has a good experience with the person. 

Things to note:
1. Find a company with a lot of reviews (ridiculously a lot)
2. Or find a person with other people recommendation (they will work better)
3. More expensive doesn't necessarily better

I went for holiday with my friend last May 2019. I didn't have time to draw during that time, but I thought I wanted to document our travels and keep it as memories through a comic that I did. Also, during the time making it, I felt at times lazy to update, I think in the end it's easier to update in short pieces rather than waiting until I finished the whole set - (Now is July already!). So, I decided, I just upload these in Tapas. I could be more motivated to finish it. (Hopefully, cross fingers). For more episodes, please go to this link tapas.io/series/Travelogue-Eastern-Europe and let me know in the comments if you liked it, hate it, or if you have any feedback (of course constructively). I appreciate it. 

I went to a meeting recently, and I waited for 2 hours. This is not the first time it happenned. Not only it's rude, it's also not respecting other people's time. If that person want to waste his/her time, it's their problem, but definitely I don't want to waste my time. If you need to pay for somebody to meet with you, discuss about work, you would think carefully. We have 24 hours a day, roughly, we slept 8 hours a day, eat + shower (3 x 1 hr), working for 8 hrs. Commuting 2 hours. 24-21 = 3 hours. Toilet break = 1 hr. What's left? 1-2 hours. Time is precious and we should plan properly, because even if you have money, you cannot buy time. Being discipline with time is very important. 

Every time I post an Instagram story, I wonder how to add in those cute stickers into my story, and I found out, I can apply for artist channel in Giphy, so all the gifs that I made can be available when you search and add in into your Instagram stories! It's fun to make and fun to see when people are using my gifs. Check out my channel, show some love and use it in your Instagram stories by searching "cypru55". 

Hey! How are you? Life has been a bit hectic recently.

1. Work is normal, with upcoming projects. I might need to be on site for a while in Indonesia.
2. Taking some time to go back to Jakarta and visiting my niece. She's so cute and adorable!
3. My side project (for short stories) to draw different characters is on hold (I'm still learning how to create different people and their features).
4. A commission work for a friend has just finished. If any, it could be revision about the sizing.
5. I haven't draw so much about my personal comic. Lately I feel a bit tired, bored and not creative. My mind seems to be just blank. I wonder what is the solution for this. I am thinking to go to some courses (baking, crafts, etc)
6. I also feel not interested in going to the gym lately, so on the weekend I will try to explore parks and walking trail in Singapore. I think it's a nice change.
7. Busy with my travel plan. At least major stuff we handled (visa, flight, hotels, train tickets), some places that we both want to go, small small things might still be planned, but I think it could be done later when nearer the date of the travel. I can't wait for the actual holiday!
8. Randomly setting time to meet somebody that I admired from Instagram. It's really nice to meet you! Maybe next time we can do sketching together!

I'm thinking of changing some things in my daily routine, meeting new people and taking more breaks. I hope it can be more inspired.

Went for an exhibition in National Museum, called: In an Instant: Polaroid at the Intersection of Art and Technology. The exhibit shows history and development of Polaroid since it's founded and interesting photos taken by Polaroid. I took some pics from the exhibition. Honestly didn't really understand a lot of pics, maybe it's just showing different pics where people use Polaroid in old times.

The most fun for me would be taking pics in a photo booth like old times.  

This exhibition ending in March, and they have some specials going on, be sure to check them out!

I went to a cute little exhibition by Ah Guo titled So Much Fun. It's shows work from him in period of 2016 - 2018. There is a main installation in the middle of the room (looked like a small dining room where people do Lo Hei. The rest showing original artwork, which I thought it's a bit small (A4-A3) size (for an exhibition). The illustrations itself is really nice and it gives a warm feeling when you see and I really enjoyed it.