Nadia Febina | Smile is Best Make-Up

Back to the Land of the Rising Sun!

nadia febina — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 06:37:03 +0000

In Angola my issue was there was no choice, hence adjusting to a simple lifestyle. In Japan so far, my little issue is ironically, that there are too many choices.

If one is kind enough to scan through my blog, they would probably find it is mainly about Angola as my writing frequency has been reduced close to none after I moved out of Angola mid 2010. I can blame it to many reasons.

Mainly however, it is due to the fact that I moved a lot in these last 2 years. 3 months here, 1 year there, 6 months in another continent, and then moved again to another country. Yep, we moved four times in two years. Not to mention overseas trips in between, mainly for business and a couple of times for pleasure. Moving houses alone was already a big headache, but ours had a little bit of twist there, as we had little knowledge where in the world we would go next. This took a lot of energy and the last thing I thought about was to write and update this poor little blog.

Luckily, it was all in the past now. Since April 2012, Yokohama is our new home. In this constantly changing world and especially in the industry we are in, unfortunately I will not be able to confirm until when I will stay here, but it will not be that long. All I know is I have to enjoy every moment that I have here. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Japan has a special spot in my heart. Having spent 3 high school years in the Indonesian School in Tokyo, good memory is all I have for Tokyo. Its hustling bustling atmosphere, its convenient and highly reliable train system, its food, its young people’s fashion-forwardness. It was all captured by the eyes of a high school student’s innocence. Two decades later, I am now again here, but with a different role. I am excited to see if I still think the same about this city. And by the way, feel free to do simple math when i said “two decades later” ;)

If Angola taught me about living a simple life, I can foresee that Japan would probably teach me how to choose. In Angola my issue was there was no choice, hence adjusting to a simple lifestyle. At first this was a big problem, but later I valued it as I eventually discovered the simple version of myself.

In Japan so far, although i am enjoying my time so much as a live-in tourist here, my little issue is ironically, that there are too many choices. For example, imagine a simple street with so many cute boutiques, delicious food, and -now and then- a beautiful temple. And imagine this street is all over Tokyo. Almost everywhere I feel like a little kid in a candystore! The experience is of course fun and exciting. And it should also be liberating, but funny enough sometimes I find it a little bit overwhelming and even at times paralysing. It makes me wondering if human tendency is to magnify the smallest issue there is so we can hold on to it just to help us feel living?

One thing for sure, Japan is a place for travel addicts. As much as I would like to tick off yet ‘another country I have visited’ in my Travel Map, I am content for now to do as much domestic travels as I could whilst I am here. And I will spend this holiday season travelling in the country.

Last but not least, merry christmas to those who celebrate it, and happy new year 2013! :)

Photos: Sensoji Temple at Night

nadia febina — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 20:50:29 +0000

Sensoji temple is undoubtedly one of the most classic tourist destinations in Tokyo. Almost everybody that has been to Tokyo has photos of themselves in front of this beautiful red temple located in the centre of Asakusa. Mom and dad were no exception.

Our visit to Sensoji was not our first time. Actually, it was one that we did for the sake of nostalgia. We had a great time during our 3-yr stay here in Tokyo 20 years back, and we would like to see how the temple looks like now after 2 decades. We knew it is normally very crowded, and considering the frying hot 36C weather, we pushed our visit to the end of the day, just before it closed.

The sun was almost set, we gave up taking photos as the natural light had gone. Tired, we sat down taking a rest.

Little did we know this would become our best visit to Sensoji. As the crowd left, the light was turned on after dark. The temple looked majestic! The following pics were taken with iPhone 4S without any filter applied.

Watching Singapore Chingay 2012 Parade

nadia febina — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 09:50:56 +0000

If there would not have been anybody giving away free tickets to us, we would never know the existence of this singaporean style carnival-like parade which is apparently conducted annually. As what is said in their website about origin of Chingay:

A dazzling extravaganza of colours and cultural diversity, Chingay Parade Singapore is known for its resplendent floats and multi-cultural local and international performances that are an insight to our festive traditions and delight the hearts of many Singaporeans and tourists.

The word Chingay is from the Hokkien dialect, of which the Mandarin equivalent is Zhuang Yi, meaning "the art of masquerade". The festival began as a neighbourhood parade with only Chinese elements in 1973. Today, the Chingay Parade has evolved to be the grandest street and floats parade in Asia, showcasing the rich, vibrant multi-culturalism of Singapore and exciting cultures all over the world. To all Singaporeans, the next Chingay Parade is a parade of our people, our dreams and our pride!

This year's theme is "Love, Care, Kindness Everywhere" as showed by many heart shaped red big balloons that decorated the venue. Before the parade started, the ever energetic MC kept shouting, "Chingay Chingay. People People. Singapore Singapore" which after every phrase audience had to answer with "we are one!". The MC went non-stop with the Chingay cheer. I am pretty sure he had a good sleep last night after the event.

It was opened by a pair of 88-meter long dragon kite-like decorations also called as "dragons-in-the-sky" coming from both sides of the long seats of audience and met in the centre to welcome us. It then followed by series of performances by representatives of countries -China, Taiwan, Japan, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia and of course, Singapore- and performances from community clubs in Singapore.

My favorite performance? The one by Taichi Gong Fu Fan that consisted of 1000 taichi athletes varied from young ones to senior ones! The choreography moved in harmony with the upbeat music, in contrary what I would think of taichi that connotes with serene and natural earth music. And I especially liked it when each of them opened their fans in one count -wooosh!- and all of a sudden the water covered street was dominated by red color.

As I noticed, the whole decoration involved many dragons. I am not entirely sure if it had something to do with the Dragon Year, or it is actually a default theme of the annual parade. But the overall feel was definitely very chinese new year.

In a typical Singapore fashion of doing things, from the beginning to end the event was organized very well. Everything was so much in order and extremely tidy. My only complaint was that there was not any single sight of food stall at all in any corner of the venue! The whole event basically took 3 hours from 7:30 to 10:30pm and I have to admit, in the last 1 hour I had to fight myself not to constantly think about food and wished that the parade was over quickly.

All in all, I do not regret coming to see the parade; and happy that we used the free tickets. It was a perfect way to end our 1-year stay in Singapore. :)

Giving Through Yoga at London Yogathon 2010

nadia febina — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:36:53 +0000

Hi All...!

I am participating in the Yogathon a charity event that takes place on Sat, 30 Oct in London Olympia. The idea is to take the challenge in doing 108 sun salutations in 2 hours! If I am able to raise fund from this event, 100% of the money will then be given as donation to Born Free Foundation, a non-profit organization who prevents animal suffering, protects threatened species and keeps wildlife in the wild. Participating in Yogathon charity event is a wonderful way to contribute to something that I care about through something that I love doing.

Why do I choose animal protection as my cause?
In a diving trip I have had recently, there was a coffee break session in a remote beach and I bumped into a dead body of a shark whose all fins were mutilated. It is not only heartbreaking to witness once a beautiful animal in such a sad condition, but it was also an eye opener that the problem is real.

Born Free Foundation with the help of your donations have program that includes rescue and care of individual animals, wildlife conservation, education and campaign. More about it in this page: http://www.bornfree.org.uk/about-us/

If you are interested in donating online, just go to my JustGiving page:
http://www.justgiving.com/nadiafebina

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer.

If you wish to donate offline, it is also possible, just let me know through my email.

On a personal level, some of you might know that I have just undergone a major surgery 3 months ago and I am still not too sure how far I would be able to keep up with this challenge. Since a month ago when my doctor gave a nod that it is now safe for me to start doing a bit of exercise, i have slowly started to practice some sun salutations in the morning and a little bit more in weekends. I still feel it a bit tough but at the same time I find the practice as a good mean to support my recovery process. Still, I am a bit nervous about Saturday, so wish me luck.....! :)

Thanks so much for your support!

This Blog is Featured in Chic Magazine Indonesia!

nadia febina — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:18:42 +0000

As an Indonesian who is being tucked away somewhere in Africa continent, I have become quite ignorant on what is available in Indonesian printed magazines and newspaper. I am now very much used to follow news just from websites and -lately- from Twitter as they are very convenient.

So when couple of days ago I was contacted by a friend letting me know that she read this blog being reviewed in Chic Magazine Indonesia, I was pleasantly surprised. I wouldn’t have known if she wouldn’t have told me! I then called my sister in Jakarta asking her to buy the magazine to confirm if that is true. And a day later a blogger friend, Ollie, sent me the snapshot via twitter and so here it is:

I apologize if this sounds like bragging, I do not mean to. I am very happy of course, but to have this blog featured in a printed media is actually more like a wake-up call to write more. I should not always hide behind my busy schedule as an excuse because it might be just a matter of having a little bit of discipline and time management. And then who knows maybe someday in the future my childhood dream to bring this little hobby to the next level can actually come true.. :D

Thanks again, Chic Magazine, for the wake-up call and for the sweet surprise.

By the way, the magazine is for young women with age range between 20-25 (maybe??). Definitely younger than mine. So as a bonus, since the last couple of days, I feel so young again. Yay! *dance* :)