Starting a New Life Abroad

4 d one who txtd me lastnite in Jogja…i miz u

The best way to spend the day off is doing absolutely NOTHING which sadly, I can’t afford to do this weekend. I have to work on a project report that has to be handed in this Thursday/Friday (Thursday: send the hardcopy by post, Friday: send the electronic form). Too much data to collate, so little time, not enough amount of functioning brain cells.

The report writing has been going on and off as I get distracted by the fact that this is a weekend (dur!), making long distance phone calls, hand-washing underwear, booking stuff for my upcoming leave, thinking of how to ask my boss nicely to ask for more annual leave than what I’ve initially requested due to a just recently told family visit to here and a sudden and undecided request to there in March. All of those plus, my undying desire to make sex. I fell asleep in between distractions and tasks, dreaming about statistic and thematic analysis, and etc. Good fun.

My lady is turning 54 today. Happy birthday, mom! I called her when my family were getting ready for a birthday bash/family gathering at a Javanese-themed resto somewhere in South Jakarta. I normally hate family gatherings and would come out with various lame reasons to avoid attending one. Yet, today, I sort of wished I could be there meeting everybody, eating the delicious traditional food, and being extremely annoyed when asked about finding a good wife.

I asked my mom when she’s planning to retire. She laughed heartily. Not for another five years, she replied. She said that she’s entitled for a pre-retirement period in which she doesn’t have to go work everyday, which probably she wouldn’t take as none of her collegues did. I knew she does love her work but I asked her anyway, why wouldn’t she start the new trend and take the pre-retirement period? She laughed again and replied, surely she could do that but what should she do then when she retires? Take up a hobby or do some non-professional-related things that she’s wanted to do for a long time… or something, I rambled. She laughed again. In the end, I wished her to stay healthy and happy and not too busy with work.

It’s her birthday but why do I suddenly feel old? I haven’t had birthday blues in a long time.

The rain’s gone. It was raining yesterday and earlier today was sunny. The temperature has actually increased  within just two days. Maybe today is the first day of Hot.

I watched dvd the other night and I gotta say that the movie really lives up to the good reviews it’s been getting. The storyline is pretty good and the lookalike-ness between The Queenie and Tony Blair characters with the real ones is just uncanny!

I’m listening to Fastball’s Out Of My Head now. I can’t think of any reasons why I should not put the song on repeat.

Back to spreadsheets and pre-wedding design webpage for my old friend.

+ I’m still on a high. Jet lag.
I was in blablabla, bliblibli on friday.
blebleble? Maybe tomorrow.

+ I absolutely GET SICK of strangers who search me on friendster and without any introductory or even lame short messages whatsoever, ask me to add them as friends. Yes, I’m a snobby blogger and believe me when I say that I don’t add STRANGERS as friends! FYI, you annoy me more than those fuckin SPAM messages!!!

I’ve decided to take my email address off this blog. If by any rational reasons you should have the need to contact me by email, please leave your email address in the comment box. Let me email you.

+ I promised myself not to cry at the airport. I thought I couldn’t be that emotional anyway. But I did cry. I know I made you surprised, just like I’d surprised myself.

+ As I drove myself away from sobriety, faint words kept buzzing in head, "Don’t mix your drinks. Don’t mix your drinks. Don’t mix your fuckin drink. Oh, what the heck, it’s a farewell party and you’re in a good crowd!"
Chin-chin!

Not taking people for granted, that should’ve been among my resolutions.
Farewell, Bro. Good luck!

PS : I dreamed of you last night, thanks to you

Jakarta has been severely flooded.
Again.

Luckily mine is located just a bit higher on the ground. It doesn’t mean it’s free from the water though. When it rains heavily, the water from the sewer would pour out to the street until it reaches about a meter high or more. However, the water would go down after making the road unaccessible for several hours. At that nights, I got stuck in my ride after work di ujung gang (just around the corner of the street), waiting for the water to subside before I could ride into the garage.

My girl told me a sad story when I called her yesterday. She went out with some volunteers to donate old clothes in Kampung Melayu area, one of the worst flood-affected places in Jakarta. She said she met a little girl who was crying her heart out because she’d lost her mother. Lost, as in doesn’t know her whereabout or whether she’s alive or not. The story left me quite speechless.

I notice that some blogs out there have started writing some stuff about ‘the blaming game’. Whose responsibility is this? Who should be punished or sanctioned for the death and homelessness of many people?

I guess it would rather be convenient if you can point your finger to only one person or two, but Jakartans are not exactly known for their environmental awareness, are they? I reckon I deserve a finger pointed at me as well for asking that question.

But, seriously.
Isn’t it better to stop playing the silly blaming game now and start thinking about helping those who are less fortunate among the unfortunates?
Think about it.

Leave your computers, gather some of your old stuff that you’re willing to give away, buy some water and bread and go to the nearest relief centres and ask what else you can do to help. I’ll give you more respect if you do just that than if you’re staying in and playing Sherlock trying to find who’s left the bloody needle in the haystack.

Having said that…

Have you ever wondered, though…

For all those hundres of years the Dutch occupied Indonesia, how come we don’t get a canal system in return?