An eighty minute drive from Bali airport (Ngurah Rai, in Denpasar) could take you anywehre, even to a place that seems to be in the middle of nowhere. Mine ended up in a village called Mambal. I lost track of where I was after we passed Dewa Ruci statue. Seemed the driver took a different road than the one I used to pass going to Ubud area. What the heck, I just tried to enjoy the ride and observed the other face of Bali, the one that’s less touristic, less urbane and more kampung. The ‘real’ society and not so plastic or pretentious compare to the tourist centers.

I really wasn’t prepared for the visit. I was dressed in a three piece dark suit, high heels and all. Official yet chic attire for business. Soon I found myself in a humble looking reception area, I gave my name and was seated in a simple and rather dim waiting room. The place looked busy, with people kept walking around. Pretty soon I was directed to the 2nd floor (the receptionist told me to take off my shoes first) and there I met a long ‘lost’ friend, looking pretty as ever. Surprisingly, what you may think earlier as stone-age office turned out to be very sophisticated. It was equipped with flat screen computers, laptops, and other hi-tech communication gadgets.

From there I could see lines of shacks what I predicted as workshops. Upon reading the company profile I could see more how the owner worked really hard to preserve nature while not letting himself left behind on technology. Impressive.

Some talk, some work, then we were called for lunch. “Hurry hurry, if you’re late, you have to buy ice cream for sixty people”. I frowned… “scuse me??” Ahh… it’s a fun rule they have so people will come to lunch on time. So I hurried down followed the rather eccentric bule. There I found a long table with chairs on both sides, the other staff, bules and locals were already there, also joined with some guests who were visiting and shopping (of course). A girl took the liberty to talk, who happened to be a new staff, then surprisingly I was introduced as well, as an interviewee from Jakarta. Think it wasn’t necessary, but I guess I just played along.

Some more work, then meeting HRD lady. This part didn’t go well (sorry, no further on this). So I guess I just wait to hear from them, at that time I was more concern catching my return flight. Before I left, they pinned me. Nothing painful, only stick this cute pin, which is their product. It's a heart shaped pin, with forms that would read "bali" (but i still can't figure out how to read it :p) and a small macaque (monkey) hanging on the right side. Fabulous.

That was the shortest trip I’ve ever had. Last year I had a 24 hrs visit, now it was just 12 hrs. Souldn’t be so bad if the return flight wasn’t delayed and had to wait for two hrs on the airport, all tired and bored.

You think I’ll get the job? Not being too overconfident I can say I’ve a big chance there, but still got things to reconsider and negotiate. It’s not just about negotiating the money, but other stuff (I can’t spill it here) I’ve to make peace with.. I tell you one thing tho, the place was excellent! I’ve made peace with that instantly ;)

fly me to the...

Manic week.. literally.

The past 5 days were just too exhausting, no time to chit chat (not in internet, mind you, that’s passed some time ago), limited time to check and respond to personal mails, work just kept coming and and going. Sorta lost contact with the outside world and by the time I get home my energy’s all drained, only left to clean up a bit before crashing. Other matters were regretfully abandoned, including making blog entries.

Aside from work, another stuff seem to materialize. It’s the Bali offer. I’m not sure what’s going on, but they sped things up. I’ve put off mailing my cv for a week (was caught up with school preparation), when I finally did they asked for a pic and later invited me for an interview. Actually they asked if I could fly there this week, but checking the office & bozz’s schedules, I asked if they could reshcedule until next week.

Request granted. As soon as it was confirmed that I’m scheduled to fly on Monday I sent bozz my leave request. Asked for two days, need an extra day to recover from all these hectic frenzy. An extra day for r&r is absolutely crucial for the sake of my mental and physical wellbeing (yeah, I’m exaggerating a bit :p).

So there goes my week. The day’s getting old here & I think it’s about time for me to leave and get ready for my weekend (yay!). Not sure what I should prepare for the interview. The Quesitons? Hmm.. by the time you reach my age and went through countless of job interviews it gets weary.. yet on the other hand, the anxiety is always there.

The way I see it is I don’t have anything to lose. I still have my current job if the interview doesn’t turn out well or I don’t favor their offer. Seems there’s something more to all this, something I can’t explain here now, coz I need to see how things work out first. Maybe later. Maybe, if I figure it out..

Anyway, wish me luck ;)

I believe in kesh..

Banks are desperate to gain as much money as they can, if possible “rob” their customers. The latest controversial move was charging people for making deposit. This was BCA new policy. Are they out of their minds? I used the word ‘people’ coz when even if u don’t have an account in that bank they’ll charge you. It was a polemic for a week and finally BCA made adjustment that every deposit with news will be charged Rp.5000 (previously Rp.10000). guess one can’t be too careful these days, even with banks.

The same bank made several contacts since late last year, offering me credit card. Well, guess they can’t help observing my ever-inreasing balance hehe.. not that I’m loaded, it’s simply because I have my salary transferred there, so maybe according to them I seem to be a good potential money source who hopefully have consumptive lifestyle.

I never refused the offer, but the card never arrived. Whenever they call again they apologized for having no luck sending it coz nobody was home whenever the courier delivered it. I made it very clear that I don’t want them to send it to my office address (didn’t give the address anyway). Had enough bad experience when I got a visit from a debt collector when I owed another bank ONLY Rp.300000!! It was humiliating so I cut the card on spot.

That was more than 3 years ago & for that length of time I never had any problem paying my expenses. “Emergency case” never occurred. What a sleazy gimmick. If one can pay cash, why trouble oneself with billls and later pout upon reading the bills and interest? Sure I don’t carry stacks of cash whenever I need to make big purchase, got plastic for that, but that’s a debit card & am just proud to lead in a debt-free life ;)

So finally I got a nu credit card.. yay!! Not just 1, but 2!! (Man, they must think I’m that consumptive!). BCA card and BCA visa. Now this is getting dangerous. Don’t wanna lost them & other people find it & max out my bank account. If I can live without credit card for the past 3 years why should I start using them now? Well, I’ll just keep it for this year as the 1st year they don’t charge annual fee. After that, just cut ‘em into pieces ;)

Nice try, BCA :p

ps. no intention whatsoever in discrediting BCA, but banks are banks, they would do a’thing to draw monies from their customers. Believe me, I lost some myself, so all I could do is to minimize that.

Confession of a confused gurl

The last time I met this friend was about a month ago where during our talk she revealed what was troubling her the past few weeks. If it’s just another gal talk I won’t bother writing about it, you might as well get one of those female magazines which pretentiously ‘listen’ & give you the best solution to all of your relationship problems.

So anyway, we met again & she shared me what seem to be the aftermath of her dysfunctional relationship. Things didn’t work out between the two (I’ll spare you the gory details), & without any agreement they went separate ways. You know how people decided to care about the other person to avoid further complication? That’s what happened.

She didn’t really care about it at first (or pretend not to?), as usual time will pass, time will heal, she’ll eventually forget about the guy & meet another guy blah blah blah…

It didn’t. A couple of months passed, she kept thinking about him, that went on until the 4th month. What bothered her was she thinks she’s obsessed with him. I didn’t really get what she meant by “obsessed” until she described what’s been going on in her head.

It’s just funny to hear that not only she found herself thinking about him (which I think is quite normal), she also developed this strange habit. Whenever she’s on the street (either walking or riding in a public transportation) she would watch the cars, & each time she spot a golden kijang (Toyota) she’d check the license plate to see if it’s her ex’s car. It doesn’t stop there, her mind would start wandering, thinking about the guy, replaying what had passed & wondering what might have been.. (imagine how ‘busy’ her mind is while such cars are everywhere on the street of Jakarta!).

“Well, try to think before you answer this…are you obsessed with him OR with the golden kijang?” She lol-ed. Good, at least that cheered her up a bit.

I don’t pretend to be a shrink, let alone doctor love (made her admit her materialistic trait? hehe..). Was more concerned about her feelings & she assured me that she’s doing fine, just can’t figure out this unusual new habit. I figure if it doesn’t bother her much, it’ll pass just as she has survived the past few months. She assured me that being busy in the office & at home helped her get through the days. Guess that’s the best she could do.. busy living or busy dying (oops!).

bloody virus!!

an entry was supposed to be uploaded yesterday, but failed, thx to my "gaptek" colleague. absent-mindedly she opened an attachment which turned out to be VIRUS.

.. arrgghh!!

well, it's not deadly, but absolutely annoying. it's the mydoom virus, attached to a file named "photos.exe" (yeah, who could resist??). what it did was sending everybody in her address book the same file. more pain for her coz later she got hundreds (the same amount of email addresses in her address book) of failure notification. another colleague came late & missed the bravado & yes, opened the file.. so here we go again..

not much damage to the other computers, just clogged the entire network & extra 4 hours of work for the IT maintenance guy.

i gave her a simple tip, no matter trustworthy the sender, never trust the attachment. so, the next time u (or in virus case the virus) send me suspicious funny email i directly send it to the trash bin (sowwwyy).

uploaded!

...still dithering

phone call was made, situation is more cleared and 'under control' coz i don't have to make a quick decision yet. all i need to do is just to email my latest CV and continue working here as the recruitment process will only start on Feb next year (the boss is out of the country until then). this will also buy me some time to obtain more information about the business, the work, the people, just about anything from my friend.

weekend again.. yay! can't wait, especially after a week full of fatigue (literally). maybe i should just take another leave on monday since tuesday is holiday (ID-17)? hmm.. should be great to have four consecutive days of R&R. but it's too late to get leave approval. maybe next time? feel like traveling but haven't got fixed plan yet.

speaking of ID-17.. does people really care about it? won't be any different from last year, i bet. set up the red-white flag on the front porch (what about people living in apartments?), some community gathering playing some games, etc etc. still fun to watch tho. it could be fun. you could ride a bike and stroll from 1 kelurahan to another, check out the latest activities people do during the comemoration, whether they got old games (panjat pinang, tarik tambang, makan krupuk) or they've invented new games. it's just an idea, not necessarily that i'll do it myself ;)

anyway, have a fantabulous weekend!!

Am so glad another interview round just passed. Still got one, two, three more rounds.. Just take it one day at a time, they say.. or make that ‘one round at a time’. It’s not much of a big deal actually, but been suffering from fatigue and headaches in the evening, then a long un-disturbed sleep (which is rare) would help to recharge for the next day. The cycle have been going on like that for a while. Perhaps need some physical and emotional pump up. Perhaps I need a vacation.. Could use a couple of days off actually. Hmm…

Got an email asking my response of the Bali opening, still asking how serious I am in pursuing the position and its consequences. Well, I could simpy answer those, but would be nice to know what kinda offer they have in the store, yes? Think am going to make some long distance call to find out more before making final decision..

d i t h e r i n g ...

Life is a series of decision making..

I figure every year, among of the thousands of decisions have to be made, there’s at least one decision that matter most A few months back . I thought that time has come, but it didn’t, instead recently. An old friend emailed me and asked if I’m interested to work in a different city. She offered me to be her replacement as she’s planning to get married and moving back to Jakarta. If this isn’t a coincidence, what is? Some time ago I chitchat with several pals about the possibility moving together to another place. Get away from this over-crowded city. Bali was agreed to be most favorite.

Now the opportunity turns up right in front of my face and I don’t know if I still want to do it. So many pros and cons have to be thoroughly considered before deciding. Seriously, if it occurred just a month earlier I’d say yes. Last month I’ve decided to take up another ‘burden’, ie. going back to school. Have been toying with the idea for a long time, finally made up my mind.

Even that took long consideration coz there aren’t much good program offered in night schools. The best options I got (related to my interest and educational background) are english literature or german literature or accounting. I just need to complete the application form and now this..?

It’s a bit unsettling when the company already asked my commitment while they haven’t give me any info of what kind of package they’re offering. She sent me list of questions, starting from how well I know Bali, am I serious working in Bali, also asked whether I’m going to get married soon. Then parents aren’t very crazy about Bali itself, land of hedonism. The line of business is jewelry, compare to the company I work now it’s less stabil. But frankly speaking, the idea of just spending a year (max. 2) working outside Jakarta itself has its own appeal. Besides, I could always go back to school, no?

Decision… decision…

The decision to go back to school was finally made after years of contemplation. Yup, u read right.. years, ever since i graduated from college. The 1st couple of years was a bit tough coz I had to safe some money to be able to self finance it, the 3rd year I sorta lost interest, instead I dedicated my time to take german classes. It was fun learning something completely new.

So that went on for several years.. Recently the learning drive was back, so I started looking at schools info. Universities, colleges, also distance learning. Distance learning was quite appealing (especially if the univ. is abroad), but I hesitated when I read an article on diploma mill*). Well if degree is the main objective it doesn’t matter, but what’s the need of a degree if the person’s unqualified?

*) Diploma mill is an unaccredited institution that grants degrees without ensuring that students are properly qualified. Some consider it as fraud, such as institutions that give degrees based on life experience, has no listing of faculty members and claiming accreditation from a questionable accreditor. Well, that's another story and not exactly my field.

Pet: IN

Monkey was an ideal pet to have in the type of house we live in. Limited yard, busy fam members (yeah, maybe a bit ignorant too). We don’t like tying a dog everyday and mom is just too naggy whenever she spotted a mess (such as animal poop from neighbor’s dogs or cats). Years back when we were still living in southern part of the city where the house was fairly big and definitely spacious yard she didn’t have problem with having pets, even at one time we had like 11 dogs.

I think my dad just couldn’t live for too long without a pet. So when we moved to the central we soon had a pet monkey. And he was serious about it too. Dad prepared the cage, mad it by himself, placed it in the front gate where people could view and played with it.

Now that it has been relocated, I’m not sure the impact on dad. Just yesterday afternoon as I was reading the papers in the front porch I noticed a small creature in a corner. I thought it was one of the neighbor’s cats, but later realized it was a puppy. Cute brown male puppy. It’s just fun to have a pet to play with, though this little puppy doesn’t seem to be a fun cheery one. Most of the time it just lie there in one corner, too shy and frightened all the time. Its eyes are crossed too. It doesn’t matter, as imperfect as it might seem at least its fluffy to stroke and cute. And yes, the house would never be completely empty anymore although the people are all out.

ps. too bad can’t upload the image of either..

Pet: OUT

It was four or five months ago the last time we had a pet in the house. For more than five years we had a female monkey. A macaque. Just a ‘kampung’ monkey, the ones people have for ‘topeng monyet’ shows, but a unique one. It (yes, it. I refuse to address it as ‘she’ as it would be too human) never recognized its masters, always play favorite. Affe (my name for it, as everybody else in the fam gave it different name) is a big fan of my dad, #2 would be my bro, then came the rest of the world where male species had better rank than the female. Affe will only be nice to me when there’s nobody around. In occasions my bro showed up it’ll get fierce at me and ready to scratch me with its claws. Fun to mess up with its mind too, just pretend hitting my bro it’ll get all crazy and noisy and obviously mad at me.. hehee.. stupid monkey all caught up with jealousy & thought could ‘save’ my bro from me.

Observing the monkey could be interesting, if I don’t have to suffer getting scratched, so I prefer to pet it when nobody’s around. Most of the time, just teased it a bit and ignored it. I know this guy whose biggest passion is the monkey business and spent a year in Kalimantan doing research on macaques. Once in a flight to Lombok he explained endlessly the different kinds of monkey and their attitude and/or characteristics; and that helped me understood it’s nature and how to deal with it.

Extradition was its unfortunate fate. One afternoon it got lose (again). We were unaware of it ‘til dad heard noise outside the house and discovered it was threatening an older lady (a neighbor) who was just passing by. I don’t think it was going to attack the lady but she was all terrified and warned us to do something about it or she would have to report the incident to the police. Well, dad has considered to get rid of it, so decided it was high time to stop all the trouble, threats, destruction, etc etc. So that same day dad took it in the car and brought to some place. Until this minute none of us know where dad dumped it. Do I miss Affe? Maybe a bit, coz at times I come home to an empty house at least it was there. Pooh.

join me for a swim tonight?!

the atmosphere you get in a swimming pool isn’t much different from that of a gym. you enter one, spread yr eyes, and you find yourself in a pool full of busy bodies. from busy doing their swim, to busy just staring at other people.. gals checking out guys, guys checking out gals, guys checking out other guys.. it’s all about looks. voyeurism ambiance is thick.

seriously, for the last one, the pool i usually go to is notorious for one of gay meeting spots. in the olden days where i still live in southern part of the city i’d go to another pools, but with home and office in the central part it takes so much time and energy to go there. so i’ve to settle with this one. it’s strategic (less traffic), cheap (less than $1!) and has an olympic-size (50x25 m) pool. as long as the gays don’t make any funny scene, i don’t think they should be a problem. what about the non-gay? not to worry, so far i can ‘handle’ them. if in the future things get unbearable, guess i just get myself a whole new pool.. ;)

swimming pool is pretty much like other places where you could meet people. it’s thematic so easier to start a conversation, and yes, even to pick up someone. ideas for your next trip to the pool:
+ you seem to be a good swimmer, you come here often?
+ gosh the chlorine’s very thick, can you tell if my eyes are red?
+ let’s race!
+ a barbaric way is just deliberately collide yourself in your target.

as silly as it seems, people actually do those.. who knows if some of them actually work. maybe youn can share from your own experience ;)

routine swim could do your body good. i should do it more often, but most of the time i’m already tired working my a** off in the gym. pretty much of an aerobic freak. swim gives a different kind exhaustion than aerobicizing. it drains your remaining energy, yet relaxing. strange, eh? well, at least that’s how i feel after 20 trips across the pool (due to not so healthy lungs i can only endure crossing the width of the pool). got a ‘bonus’ of runny nose but my head’s more light. i’m sure i’ll get a good night sleep tonight.. zzzz..zzz..zz....

gym society

watching people is fun to dom, sort of like bird watching yknow.. a good place to do that is in a shopping mall, another is an airport. since i rarely go to those, i people-watch in the gym i usually go to. you can see all types of people there..

* the narcisstic ones
(they would do their thing in front of/near the mirror. do some lifting, look at himself in the mirror, do some sit-ups, back to the mirror, drink some water & yes, back to the mirror. they walk straight up, showing off their muscles around..)

* the exhibitionists
(wear tights to show off their fat-free bodies graced by six-pack tummies)

* the antisocials
(i come, i work out, i leave)

* the social type
( i come, i play, i hang out, i laugh hahaha...)

* the sport freaks
(i come, i work out, i work out, i work out.....)

* the prying eyes
(i come, i see....)

which one are you?

The passion(less) of me..

After putting off watching the .... movie (add adjective yourself), finally seen it. ummhhh tough to describe what I think of it without getting too personal and sappy.. to put it in one word: touching. not much on the crying part, but (tho shown very limited) on how Jesus touched the lives of other people...

Most of the time I didn’t really pay attention to the slaughtering part (yes, it was brutal and rough and a bit too graphic), it was the price He chose to pay. You know the rest of it, the how and why.. it's out of l-o-v-e he decided to walk down the road less traveled. One tough decision that ultimately cost His own life.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference

It’s part of Robert Frost’s poetry titled “The Road Not Taken” (click here to read the complete piece), shared by a dear friend some time ago, which I found very true and echoes life itself.. being aware of my sometimes indifference, I wish I could be more passionate (compassionate?) and when it's required of me, the courage to take the road less traveled.