post JKT 09 thots

it might not make sense to have an entry on afterthoughts immediately after a post on the very first day of the trip, but well, here goes.

1) this trip has made me very relaxed and rejuvenated, ready to take on new things. talking to my relatives had been of great help to maintain a positive mindset.

2) an eye-opener it has been. a land so seemingly unstructured and dominated with no rules, yet every inch a possibility for riches.

3) a potential place to migrate to? or least venture into. need some research and ideas.

4) more appreciative of things back here, and less complacent.

5) the girls are very cantik.

haha!!

Jakarta 2009 - Day 1 (Arrival)

A somewhat rushed, but well-executed trip to Jakarta in January 2009...

Arrival - 170109 approx 1530 hrs
Soekarno-Hatta Int'l Airport Arrival Hall
Reminiscent of older shopping malls in Singapore - does not appear to be an int'l airport, but it is.

Very retro-style...Always good to see something familiar from home... There were more, but I did not take the pictures. Some that came to mind were DBS, OCBC... and Home-Fix, a DIY retailer.

And of course, what used to be familiar but is no longer. What is not so familiar about this thing that once was, was the price - at least half the price of that in a typical Singapore fast food outlet.

Some things never change, such as a government's perpetual liking for money.

DIY roast suckling pig

my aunt dropped by sg a few days back to attend a seminar, brought along a pitch fork and half-done suckling pig. roasted it for 2 hours and the results:

color and taste were excellent, though some parts were harder to roast i.e. the feet etc. anyway it was good fun.

kena buang big time

2 pix of my mom's altis being buang by a lorry this afternoon ard 1 - 2pm... estimated repair days = 3, repair amount = 1.2k

wa lau! i better also take note and not anyhow move out of a lot. better also to not aim for one shot swee swee into carpark slot just for egoistic purposes.

abstinence!

ever since the last "liquor treatment" in august 08 and the subsequent "punishment" (aka vomiting) i have (or rather, my stomach) now an adverse reaction to the hennessey family of cognacs, notably XO and VSOP.

i experienced something similar when i was in primary 3, when i had some raw oysters on a sunday evening. it was my first time with raw food, so probably it wasn't that fresh, or that i should have downed some hot stuff (such as soup) before eating those oysters - i don't know. then, on monday morning i had pork rib noodles. around 11:00am i started visiting the WC really frequently and at the same time, i felt nauseous but did not vomit (not until much later, anyway).

evening came, and it got worse. the toilet bowl almost became part of me, and it did not help that i had tuition in that same evening. gosh, it was a new tutor too! goodness, i went to the toilet after a while and if i remember correctly, i vomitted in the tutor's house too (into the toilet bowl of course) and was asked to lie on the bed until the end of the session. jeez, after that i did not go to that tutor anymore - for reasons i still don't know.

anyway, almost a year on from that fateful morning and that even more fateful bowl of noodles, i shunned away from pork rib noodles because i could not stand the taste, and that it reminded me of my vomit. although after that, i'm back to eating that (the noodles, not the vomit!) and it still counts as one of my favorite breakfast.

so the same goes for XO and VSOP... last night i had to entertain a couple of my grandfather's friends and they are notable for being able to drink - a lot. not beer, but liquor - preferably without ice / water added, but always with so as to minimize the impact of drinking pure liquor.

i had mine with ice, and it did not agree well with my stomach; only had a single cup and it was enough. anyway liquor and spirits are always wasted on me as i will frequent the toilet after downing a few of them. i am likely to be sober still (it takes quite a fair bit to get me drunk) but the good stuff just goes down the drain as piss.

luckily, i did not vomit. nor did i drank so much that i have a hangover today... phew.

gotta go. lots of work to do... but never the "real" work.

2 meetups in 2 days with 2 friends each.

i just came back from the second.

it was a trip down to vivocity with 2 friends, with the purpose of buying new year clothes. i had a budget and the kind of stuff i wanted in mind, however, it was a tad beyond my means. not that i could not afford it, but buying the ones i wanted would limit the number of pieces i could really buy. moreover, the designs were not to my liking... i think i can get nicer looking ones at better prices elsewhere.

took the trip as a way to relax. frankly, i have a lot of things in mind, and the old issue that i had since graduation is still there. as a light sleeper, it is a blessing if i could reach dreamland within half an hour - i usually take about 2 to do so, after a lot of turns and sleeping positions.

i woke up at 3 am in the morning and did not fall asleep again until 5. that said, i only slept at 1 before i was awakened again. i need to stop thinking so much before i sleep, and try to have less random stuff occupying my thoughts all the time.

i would buy the stuff i need next week.

back to the first. it was yesterday - my friend had an off day and we decided to meet up. being in the service industry, it is common to only have 1 off day per week, and almost 99% it is going to be on a weekday. while this friend of mine is in charge of training, and logically, would usually be conducted during off-peak / dedicated sessions, the live action occurs during the other times. i suppose that's where training gets practical, and supervision a necessity.

had coffee at raffles city while we waited for another friend to arrive. of course, there was the usual catching up, as well as new, spicy stuff. i found myself giving out a lot of suggestions yesterday, because it was a topic that i am quite interested in, and it just so happened that i was in a good position to talk about it.

to sum it up, it pretty much repeats some of the stuff i had, or might have, said before. the ones who truly deserve do not get it, while the ones who don't get it (the "it" here are good things). and when the latter does, they don't usually treasure.

the above paragraph speaks a lot about some stuff that i personally went through. not that i'm complaining, but i just thought that sometimes, it just doesn't happen. what i hope is that the things that "just don't happen" are not many in number, or it can get really depressing. it might not be so bad if no one asks about it, but when they do - you force yourself to look normal, and you make a short statement about things still being ok and bearable, but that hardly says anything about what you actually feel. going on to explain things makes things feel even worse, until the point you just stop explaining, knowing that people won't understand anyway.

anyway, i used to think about a certain possibility, and i had in mind what i was going to do and say. surprisingly, i wasn't really affected much by it. i guess it's because i'm still very removed from the entire affair altogether and, although i really do think that it can happen, it might just take a little more time. moreoever, i don't feel ready yet, at least in certain aspects.

i wonder how i would feel if it comes to materialize. would i curse myself for procrastinating? would i feel relieved, because i do not have to think about it again? would i even go on to feel and share the joy that comes out of it?

there i go again.

stop thinking and speculating. just do what you can, and what you have to. many things are just not up to you - look forward and hope for better things to come.

hope. yeah... that's right.

01.01.2009

first entry of 2009...

while i wait for my hair to dry and, being slightly alert after a shower, time to get some blogging done.

watched yes man just now - the plot was predictable, but i laughed more than i did in other comedies. it probably was one of the funnier ones i watched recently - or perhaps i was just in a better mood.

the plot's twist aside, it was more of the message behind the lines. start accepting stuff. say yes - but with some thought. i think the more important thing to note was accepting stuff. while i would not go so far as to say that i am so stubborn that i am totally not open to new ideas, comments and criticism (which definitely isn't me, as people i know can attest to), i would say it might be worthwhile to start moving beyond my comfort zone sometimes. that's what.

after the movie, i felt invigorated. or rather, during the movie, i already did. it was in the cinema that i set some targets for myself to aim at - not necessarily resolutions that i must attain. a weird place to have your new year targets made, i agree, though it was the right moment that mattered. and it was.

so with new-found confidence, i embark 2009 with a new spirit and attitude... and that should translate into some positive thinking that could just make the difference. as i write, i remembered something that my friend said to me a long time ago, but it was always off my mind. that advice worked before, and i'm sure it'll work again.

don't be so nua!

yup, that's right. i better keep that advice in mind more often.