Finally Woken

Keeping It Private

Is this a growing trend among Indonesian bloggers?

I have found out that at least three of my blogbuddies have decided to restrict their blogs, which means only invited users can read them. They're quite popular and one of them has been listed permanently on the top 100 in IndonesiaMatters. I asked two of them, and they gave me similar answers: taking a break, reflecting, attending new important thing(s) in life which need full support or concentration, etc. I found them decided to do this almost on the same week.

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My blog is updated today, 30 June 2008. Click Finally Woken to read the complete story.

The Long And Winding Working Hours

I   have quit my job and left Indonesia a year ago, but still receive job offers from time to time, although no one dares to relocate me back to Jakarta as en expat (*wink). But when I was visiting my ex boss in his fancy office after having dinner with my ex-colleagues, seeing the whole department was still complete and on full force even after 9PM (and received a request if I could help them out since I'd be here for 2 months), I blurted that I would not want to go back to this working habit. And I mean it. I have been there and done that. And I have no intention of doing it all over again, because I have the chance to choose a better life.

Just like most of other jobs in Jakarta, my days started before six and finished around midnight. I was lucky I lived (still do, actually) in the city so I didn't have to leave home before 5AM like others, but I still spent 45 minutes to 1 hour to reach my office. Normal days would be getting in the office at 8.30 and finished around 9PM, then it was either having late dinner with colleagues and friends, or attending social gatherings somewhere, or simply going to gym for a couple of hours. I used to work at weekends as well, and if the project was about to complete, I and everybody else would be awake 24 hours and stayed at the project until 3AM. When I was handling the projects outside Jakarta, my days would start even earlier and finish much later. When I moved to a different industry, long working hours remained (I once stopped over in Singapore after 13 hours flight and went straight to the conference room, jet-lagged and all), except that I could at least enjoyed some weekends off.

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My blog is updated today, 26 June 2008. Click Finally Woken to read the complete story.

I'm Not An Indonesian, Not Yet A Scottish Lady

I think the combination of being in a holiday mood, having too many things to do/people to meet/parties to attend, and having crap internet connection at home, makes me abandoning my blog. It has been over a week and I haven't been bothered to update it.

So I arranged to meet up with Therry at Cazbar yesterday. I thought I would be motivated to write something once I sat down on its wooden chair, had the lamb chop with a non-stop wine supply on the side. But Cazbar's internet connection was down right after we finished my lunch today, and only bounced back before six, right before the cheese night started, and right before Nonie came to pick me up. So I couldn't even check my emails, let alone updating my blog there, and must do everything when I got back home. Darn.
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My blog is updated today, 25 June 2008. Click Finally Woken to read the complete story.

Certain Friendships Don't Last Forever (2)

Sometimes when you're sleep deprived, you start imagining things and seeing stars before your eyes. That's what I thought the first time I saw them.

On the way back to Indonesia I stopped over in Singapore to see my best friend from high school, who's heavily pregnant and ready to explode any day now. I landed in Singapore at 6 AM and headed for shower room on the second floor in attempt of keeping myself awake. I couldn't sleep on the plane: the first 4 hours a passenger seating next to me was talking nonstop of being a Jewish and Jewish tradition (my fault, I asked. I should've known better about old people, they're chatty!), and the next 8 hours were spent on watching movies. I was thinking about sleeping for a few hours until the shops open at 11 AM but the transit hotel at Changi was fully booked, and another place offers non-private napping rooms, and the thought of sharing a room with other 7 strangers immediately put me off, so after early check-in for Jakarta and left my hand luggage, I went for Starbucks instead. By 4 PM when heading back to airport after sushi overdose and another cup of coffee, I realized that I had been up for 31 hours and couldn't wait to go home. I went to boarding room the minute the gate was open, so I could sit down and doze off. But just before I decided which song in my ipod I would use to help me sleep, a lady in red walked toward me and I realize it was Monika, my ex-colleague.

And she's not alone. There were at least 5-6 of my ex colleagues and bosses who were on the same flight as me (I have a theory that half of Singapore is occupied by Indonesian, and this is the proof) and we exchanged some words before boarding. I was ready to sleep (it had been 33 hours by then), but I must wait for other passengers to seat next to me (a downside of choosing aisle seat), so I spent time by looking around, and there, right across the room, seating on the same row as me, I saw.... them.

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My blog is updated today, Tuesday 17 June 2008. Click Finally Woken to read the complete story.

Travel With Dignity

I've been putting the packing activity off forever until the last minute. I have piled everything I know I am taking home in the bedroom corner for days, but every time I wanted to start, I just couldn't be bothered. Plus I've got zillion things to do in the last minute, as usual. This comes from someone who claims that she's organized. D'oh.  

But finally I've done it. I finished it a couple of hours a go, and I'm ready for flying back home at tomorrow's first flight. Since this time is special because I'm having a do in August, I come back with so many things I buy from here. I pray that Indonesian custom wouldn't check my luggage, because along 6 pieces of paper napkins with tartan motif and the fabric from curtain leftover which I plan to make tiebacks out of it, I have too many things they would considered strange. Like two handbags but almost non-existent clothes. Yeah, yeah, I'm weird.

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My blog is updated today, 14 June 2008. Click Finally Woken to read the complete story.

Your Comments Worth A Million (And You Don't Know It!)

This is a wake up call to all bloggers. Somebody - or many people - out there, is/are listening, or to be precise, reading, whatever you say everywhere in the virtual world. It doesn't matter whether it's trashy, unintelligent, boring, or lame. It doesn't matter whether you pour your heart out in your own blog, in a discussion forum, or in social networking websites a.k.a Facebook or MyScape. They will scoop it out, put it together with other comments on the same subject and... (here's the annoying-slash-scary part), sell it to whoever wants it!!

No, it's not the "big brother" up up in the sky. It's not our government. It's not the internet provider. It's not Al Qaeda. And it's definitely not Google or Microsoft.

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My blog is updated today, 13 June 2008. Click Finally Woken to read the complete story.

Chick Lit Overload

Here's a question. Why do most of the chick-lit novels have their main characters working either as an author, a journalist, or as an editor in book publishing industry? Remember Candace Bushnell's Carrie Bradshaw (a columnist), or Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones (an editor) or Sophie Kinsella's Becky Bloomwood (a journalist), and of course, Lauren Weisberger's Andrea Sachs who worked at Vogue as Miranda Priestly (the editor)'s assistant in The Devil Wears Prada?

And now the newest Lauren Weisberger novel, Chasing Harry Winston, has one of the characters working as an editor too and another character was to become a columnist.

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My blog is updated today, Thursday, 12 June 2008. Please click Finally Woken to read the complete story.

The World's First Pregnant Man

The world's first pregnant man, is preparing himself for the birth of his first baby, which is due in four weeks. Thomas Beatie was born female, named Tracy Lagondino, but had gender reassignment surgery and is now legally male and married to a woman. However he keeps his ovaries and womb so he could have children.

Brave Thomas has caused worldwide controversy over the "reverse" pregnancy, which was the only way he and Nancy could have children.

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My blog is updated today, 9 June 2008. Click Finally Woken to read the complete story.

One More Beer, Please

Apparently the sentence above is really important and must be translated into 50 languages. Forget how to say please and thank you, don't bother to learn to ask for a direction in a local lingo, as long as you can ask for one more beer in a strange place, you'd be fine, and you'd charm the local girls.

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My blog is updated today, 8 June 2008. Click Finally Woken to read the complete story.

 

Feel Phenomenal

Scottish version of the famous Rudyard Kipling's "If" poem:

If you can bounce in six inch heels all night
And still walk home in your bare feet
If you can keep two passions burning bright
And see there`s still some romance in defeat
If you can hit a foreign beach without a tan
Or brave the howling sleet in just a shirt
If you know you are easily the better man
When side by side with suits in just a skirt
If you can picnic in the pelting rain
With kamikaze midgies in the mud
Or grit your teeth and put up with the pain
Of seeing in the New Year in the scud
If you can wait and wait for 1p change
Then proudly give the lot to charity
And know for certain it`s not strange
To call lunch dinner and your dinner, tea
If you can handle folk who call you jock
Then you`ll have really earned your Irn–Bru
You’ll thank your Mum for keeping you in stock
And what is more, you`ll feel phenomenal too.

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