Masih ingat engkong penjual buffet ini? Kalau lupa, bisa baca ceritanya di sini.
Waktu mama datang kemarin, mama cerita, si engkong datang lagi dengan dagangan buffetnya. Ada tetangga menawar harga 150 ribu, si engkong nggak mau lepas. Mama bilang, si tetangga berkomentar: “Ya nggak maulah, udah pernah dibeli 350 ribu!” Iya, yang dimaksud si tetangga itu saya, karena mereka mendengar saya membeli buffet itu seharga 350 ribu. Dan saya baru tahu belakangan, kalau tetangga yang lain pernah membeli barang yang sama dari si engkong seharga 150 ribu. Jadi rupanya, saya dituduh merusak pasaran. Padahal asli, saya ikhlas beli tanpa nawar karena menurut saya harga segitu nggak sebanding dengan usahanya. Menurut saya, harga 500 ribu pun masih sangat pantas. Nggak pernah kepikiran di benak saya, kalau niat baik saya itu justru disalahartikan oleh orang lain. Terbukti sekali lagi, bahwa niat baik saja tidak cukup =(
Saya jadi ingat, dalam perjalanan dari terminal Jepara ke pelabuhan Kartini sebelum ke Karimun Jawa, saya dan teman seperjalanan menumpang becak. Dari hasil googling, saya tahu bahwa standar ongkos becaknya 15 ribu. Namun ketika menjalaninya, ternyata sangat jauh, dan saya merasa ongkos 15 ribu itu kurang layak. Bayangkan, dari depan komplek ke rumah saya yang jaraknya nggak sampai 300 meter saja ongkos becaknya 5 ribu, masa ini jarak 1,7 km hanya 15 ribu? Saya bermaksud memberikan setidaknya 20 ribu, ketika teman saya protes. “Jangan! Kalau kamu ngasih lebih, berarti kamu merusak harga pasaran!” “Lho tapi kan kasihan!” “Ya memang begitu prinsip hukum ekonomi.” Meski pada akhirnya dia membayar 20 ribu juga sih karena tidak ada kembalian =)
Malam ini, saya seperti diprotes suami. Ceritanya, suami sudah approve budget 3,5 juta untuk reparasi sofa jati warisan mertua. Ketika abang sofa datang, mama saya bilang, tawar lagi harganya. Ya sudahlah saya tawar, dan ternyata, abang sofa setuju dengan harga 3 juta. Langsung mulai dikerjakan di tempat hari itu juga tanpa DP, selesai dalam waktu maksimal satu minggu. Suami bilang, seharusnya tidak usah ditawar. “Kasihan, lagian selisih uang segitu nggak akan bikin kita miskin”, katanya. Sedangkan, mbaknya mertua bilang, pasaran di tempatnya untuk pengerjaan yang sama hanya 1,5 juta saja. Saya jadi serba salah, dalam hal ini yang benar itu mengikuti prinsip hukum ekonomi atau prinsip kemanusiaan?
Lalu saya ingat lagi pada protes teman saya di path. Ia menyayangkan gojek yang terus-terusan memberikan harga promo karena justru program promo itu membuat layanan gojek semakin sulit didapat oleh pengguna setia (permintaan jauh melebihi persediaan), dan membuat sistem persaingan kurang sehat dengan kompetitornya (terutama ojek konvensional yang pastinya tak memiliki aliran dana berlimpahruah dari investor). Mirip miriplah dengan website jualan yang sering dumping harga untuk menguasai pangsa pasar. Meskipun gojek beralasan promo itu dalam rangka memberi kesejahteraan lebih untuk para gojek driver, namun dalam skala besar ada pihak yang merasa dirugikan.
Jadi, mana yang benar? Ah, entahlah. Bagaimana menurut kalian?
Sesuai saran brilian seorang teman, Bryan Tamara Barus, saya sudah menemukan solusi polemik harga reparasi sofa kemarin: tetap memberikan selisih harga yang sudah diapprove suami, tapi dengan konsesi yaitu tambahan reparasi perabotan lain yang kira2 di bawah selisih harga tsb.
Dengan demikian, mudah2an si abang senang karena dapat rejeki tambahan, suami juga senang karena tidak memotong hak orang, saya pun senang karena tidak merusak harga pasaran :)
Eh ya ndilalah hari ini dapat rejeki yang nominalnya tepat 10 kali lipat dari selisih harga reparasi sofa. Kok bisa pas banget ya? Ajaib.
It is clear to me that God prospers us not to raise our standard of living, but to raise our standard of giving. As it is also clearly written on the holy bible:
“Camkanlah ini: Orang yang menabur sedikit, akan menuai sedikit juga, dan orang yang menabur banyak, akan menuai banyak juga. Hendaklah masing-masing memberikan menurut kerelaan hatinya, jangan dengan sedih hati atau karena paksaan, sebab Allah mengasihi orang yang memberi dengan sukacita. Dan Allah sanggup melimpahkan segala kasih karunia kepada kamu, supaya kamu senantiasa berkecukupan di dalam segala sesuatu dan malah berkelebihan di dalam pelbagai kebajikan.” 2 Korintus 9:6-8 TB http://bible.com/306/2co.9.6-8.tb
Last night I slept like a baby at the hospital. Woke up feeling fresh, and no toilet struggles this morning. First win of the day! Around 7 a.m., I emerged from the bathroom to find my mom and my in-laws already there. They’d left their house at 5:30 a.m., picked up my mom on the way, and arrived bright and early. Today’s main event was ESWL treatment to blast my kidney stones into dust. It was supposed to happen at 8 a.m., then moved to 9 a.m., and finally got pushed to 11 a.m. because my doctor had another procedure. Which meant the parents had been there for hours, and I got to nap on and off like a cat waiting for dinner. But maybe that delay was divine scheduling. Just minutes before the nurse came to take me in, my pastor arrived to pray for me in person. He drove 40–50 kilometers to be there. That’s not just kind, it’s humbling. Thank you, Pak Pendeta. And earlier, another “pastor” (in quotes because she’s actually my friend Detha) prayed for me over the phone. Add in the ...
Yes, after 10 days in hospital and surviving three major operations, thank God I’m still alive, guys! I know, I know, I’ve been absent for a week from this blog. Not because I don’t want to write, but because life gave me a little detour called “hospital survival mode.” And let me tell you, survival mode is no joke. Imagine trying to juggle post-op pain, a stubborn IV line, doctors coming in at odd hours, and me negotiating with nurses for one more round of painkillers like I was bargaining in a flea market. Add in Netflix running in the background, half-watched movies I don’t remember, and me dozing off mid-dialogue. That was my week. See? Even my fingers had a medical leave. Who knew something as small as an IV placement could make me feel like a baby bird learning to type? But apparently, while I was away, statistics showed hundreds of people were still peeking at this blog every day, as if to check if I’d left a heartbeat here. That thought touches me deeply. So now that my ha...
Woke up at 4:45 AM and couldn’t get back to sleep because, well… the mules were kicking. Ended up spending quality time on my porcelain throne (as one does) until my youngest left for school with Daddy as the driver. Then it was time to teach my mom how to use my kitchen gadgets: the dishwasher , Coway water filter , electric kettle , electric egg boiler , sinkgard food waste disposer , digital slow cooker & steamer, electric lighter , multifunction rice cooker , and of course my beloved mini retro oven air fryer . After fixing her breakfast, I went for another “meditation” session in the toilet because the earlier one was unfinished business. Wrapped up just as my husband got back, and then had breakfast with Mom. But nope, round two wasn’t enough. Chili and fried snacks from yesterday decided to remind me why I’m supposed to be having my appendix removed soon. Still, can you blame me? They were delicious :p By the third round, I was finally done. Told my daughter to cook wi...
Saturday, 16 August 2025, past midnight “Bu, bu, operasinya sudah selesai ya Bu.” “Dingin… dingin…” Those were the first words that came out of my mouth when I woke up from surgery. Not exactly poetic, but hey, when you’ve just survived laparoscopy and hysterectomy-laparotomy in one go, you don’t wake up quoting Shakespeare. You wake up asking for blankets. I remember shivering, my teeth chattering, my body completely confused about what just happened. The nurses rushed to wrap me in layers, and I drifted in and out of consciousness, half-aware that my life had just been handed back to me, stitched and stapled and sewn together. And honestly, that’s the thing about life, isn’t it? We often imagine survival arriving in big, cinematic ways. Dramatic music, bright lights, maybe even a slow clap. In reality, sometimes it shows up with a shaky whisper: “dingin… dingin…” The doctors told my husband it was quite long, delicate surgery. My appendix alone took nearly an hour, and removing my my...
Last night, I went to bed at 2 AM. Not ideal, I know. At 7 AM, my bladder staged a coup and forced me to wake up. I shuffled to the bathroom, sat there like a queen on her porcelain throne, and opened my laptop, thinking I’d just check something quickly. Famous last words. Before I knew it, three hours had passed. But here’s the twist: I wasn’t doomscrolling. Nope. I've been hiatus on social media for almost 3 weeks now, remember? Instead, I figured out the holy grail of social media sanity: posting on Instagram without getting sucked into the endless scroll. Not even a hint of what other people were posting. The secret weapon? Meta Business Suite . It lets you schedule and post content without even opening the Instagram app. No “just one quick look” that turns into a black hole of reels and memes. Plus, there are neat automation tools, analytics to geek out on, and scheduling options that make me feel like I’m running a proper content empire. Maybe (just maybe) I can return to soc...
