Mini break

Avoiding matters is never in my blood, but I can use a refreshing distraction. To keep myself sane I needed something different other than a reminder after another of the crap that’s been going on my life. And different is what I got.

With a friend I jumped in a boat and sailed to another island across Badung strait called Nusa Lembongan. It was a nice big boat (or was it a yacht?) that could carry more than 200 pax. And by the time we got there it was all about the ocean. We were drunk of it. Snorkeling non-stop, swimming in the sea, observing the corals, checking out the next beach, and more swimming. It was a lovely place, and we’re blessed with a lovely day too! We could care less of silly game like banana boat, let the Chinese/Korean tourists have their claws on it.

And that’s exactly what I needed. Sea water to rinse all the clutter in my head, swimming to give a different exhaustion to my body that’s tensed from stressing matters. And salty air to fill my lungs.

Life is good.

Bookkeeping faces

What does it mean when you got notification that you got tons of email? Yay, social life is picking up (virtually). But your spirit dropped when it’s just email notifying X confirms that you’re his friend, Y tagged you a picture and Z wrote a comment in your wall. Some excitement.

I’ve abandoned Friendster for as long as I can remember (can’t even remember the password), and never really interested in accepting a bunch of other invites to join 'internet networking' services, such as Jhoos, hi5, linkedin, plaxo, etc, etc. Who really wants to have 5 different accounts to be connected with the same people? If I want to connect I simply buzz them on YM or Skype, or send them a nice email. It’s just tacky to have a program that automatically sends you each movement of what’s happening in your networking account. In a day you’ll receive at least 10 notification emails, and that if you so far only have 15 friends. Quite a clutter to clean up everyday.

I’m not even going to talk about the competition to have as many friends as possible. Everybody wants to befriend with Mr. Popular. To tell the truth I have some 'friend request' I haven’t approved. Firstly I don’t know who they are, secondly I don’t know why they want to add me?? No offence, nothing personal, just me being antisocial (hahaa..).

Well, now I’m sort of 'trapped' in this FBsphere after some months of successfully avoiding it. I figure when there's something new come and more hip than FB people would emigrate, just like what happened with Friendster. But I sort of yielded when the 123rd person asked me about it (the number is not accurate, but who's counting right). Can’t promise I’ll stay long or visit regularly, but I guess connecting with ol’ pals can't be so bad after all...

Behold the One who make all things new..

Happy 2009!!

Whether it’s going to be a happy one or not I can’t guarantee. How can I when at the beginning of it I got news that makes my future uncertain. In short, I’m no longer supported by the company, so it’s up to my employer whether he wants to continue employing me. I’m not worried, when there’s a door closed God will open a window somewhere. A window of opportunities.

More to that, I have God, my Provider. He provided me this job, if He says it’s time to move, it’s time to move. Worse case, I no longer have to work long hours nor making calls in the middle of the night (the possibility doesn’t look bad at all!). I can stay in Bali for a few months, or go straight back to Jakarta.

For we have been redeemed
Yes, we have been set free
And You are all we need
So now our lives will shine for all to see..
(click on the guitar to listen to the song).

Tourist frenzy

Pooh, completely forgot that the period between Dec 23 to Jan 5 is the worse time to hang out in the cool places in Bali. Every place is packed with tourists. Streets were jammed, beaches were crowded with people from everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy the tourism is picking up again, just had to be more patient in sharing this island with visitors. Sure, welcome, don’t forget to shop! :D

I stayed in the island since I’ve promised a good friend of mine who wanted to spend the end of 2008 in Bali, and I already said it was OK if she wanted to bunk in at my place.

So I spent the last 3 days of 2008 going places. My favorite places in Bali, and you can imagine how fat I gotten for eating the best food also! Babi guling, Bebek bengil.. Whoaa, when NY comes I better burn off all these calories.

I enjoyed being tour guide cum driver (my friend couldn’t drive). A friend had this idea that I could offer such service and start a small business. It doesn’t have to be frenzy, like a group of tourists I know who went from Kuta (southern part of Bali) up north just to found the place they wanted to visit was totally packed, so they had to go back, went to a beach in west part of Bali, again packed with tourists. I personally don’t like to have strictly scheduled vacation. Give a list of the best places to visit, and I’ll visit them one area on one day. Unlike the group I mentioned who seemed to spent their vacation on the car!

Well, that’s something I can think of, but don’t really feel I want to put myself in a position of having to meet endless demands, since I got paid for the service. Been there, it was OK since it’s a permanent job. But when it comes to something really subjective, where’s the limit? They can complain on something as simple as “the performance was crap, we didn’t pay you to show us crap”.

Hmmm... I don't think so...