Monday 28 January 2013

Happy Monday!

Hello, good morning!

Nothing from me today (sorry, it's hard to write when you are recovering from a cold, try this: typing three words, and then blowing your nose, type another three words, and blow your nose. Repeat over and over again. I lost my train of thought so many times that I gave up and slept.)

So. Let's head over here for some good stuff. Something worth pondering about.

Have a great week!

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Still on the Jakarta Flood


Source: here and here.

Yeah, okay, not the most reliable source. I am not going to speculate whether corruption and extortion is still alive and well. But there is a reason as to why people say these things.

Monday 21 January 2013

Revised New Years Resolutions

I wrote earlier about not having new years resolutions.

But since writing that, I have found a couple that's actually pretty good and I'd like to borrow them. No points for originality for me for the first two. I have come up with a couple more thanks to the flood.

Here goes.

The first is this one.

"This year, one of my personal resolutions is to live a slower, more thoughtful (meaningful?) life. Less travel, more adventure. Less work, more challenges."

At the back of my mind, I know that I need to slow down, if only for the mere fact that I need to hear myself think, so that I can ground myself back to reality. I know that I need to enjoy the journey and not fixate too much on the destination. I know that I need to breathe and calm down over the fact that sometimes life does not go as we planned - example, the flood in Jakarta during my holiday. Note to self: don't go to Jakarta during the rainy season. But can anyone explain to me as to why the pump was switched off during the flood? Does it not defeat the purpose of having the pumps in the first place?

The second is this one.

" 1. Do not buy items because they're a good deal. This one is so obvious, but it's also hard to stick to... The thrill of a deal makes it easy to justify random items that we never really wanted before. This also applies to items that aren't "on sale." For example, after I started having luck at thrift stores, I ended up buying more than I could wear (or alter at one time) because everything was just a few bucks. Even though the total money wasted was negligible, it's the acts of adding clutter and unnecessary consumerism that I hope to further cut down on this year."

Where do I begin with this one?

Fashion, style, clothes, shoes and handbags are a natural extension of my self-expression. This is how I enjoy myself. You know how some of you like tennis or golf or ... chess? I like dressing up. There, I said it. I enjoy developing a collection of things to wear, although I must admit a proportion of this collection is there for the sole purpose of me admiring them from time to time (read: they do not get worn).

Given the option, of course everyone wants to have a well-curated wardrobe. And just like anything else worth having, this is hard work. A well-curated wardrobe, in my version, is full items I love. The hardest thing when shopping is to walk away from a good deal, but this is a very necessary step towards a well-curated wardrobe.

The third - well, this rises from a conversation with my boyf yesterday as we were walking home from dinner: remember that first world problems are exactly that: first world problems. 

Our experience of being trapped in the flood, albeit momentarily, really put things into perspective. Living in Sydney is awesome most of the time, and also borderline boring some days (which I am totally okay with), and it also means that our lives are "sheltered". Being exposed to something unexpectedly awful, like the flood, makes us realise that our so-called first world problems are a function of our preference towards the affluence, being made possible by the mere fact that we are living in this city. (This is not to say that affluence does not exist in any other city - it probably exists in every city in this world, it is just a question of degree of obviousness.)

Despite my best effort of not whining about the weather, or the lack of clean taxis, or good fried chicken around town, they still happen. And I feel twice as bad these days whenever I think about the flood. I am not just thinking about our house and our family, I am thinking about the many many thousands of people who are without shelter. I think about the city of organised chaos that is currently submerged by water that is totally helpless and lifeless.

The fourth - this one is also flood related: Noah is around when we need him, we gotta pay it forward.

You all heard of Noah, right? The story about our Noah is here, so I won't repeat it here.

Now, in a place like Jakarta, our Noah is a God-sent. Literally. Because the subsequent horror stories that I heard about people who extorted others who need to be evacuated are too scary to be re-told in this space.

Jakarta is an unforgiving place, it is truly a place where everyone is for themselves. But at the same time, you cannot exist without a network of people in your life, in the form of family and people who work for you, and random kind strangers like Noah.

I can understand why people with boats would want to extort others, especially those who are desperate. If you are lucky, you can earn 100k rupiah in a day. In Noah's case, he earned in in less than half an hour. If you have a boat, and you can't go fishing, and you need to make money, this is your chance. A hundred thousand rupiah means so much more to you than to these people anyway - so why not.

People like Noah are rare, but they do exist. People like Noah restore my faith in humanity.

I hope when people think of me, they think that I restore their faith in humanity, although I sort of doubt this. I hope that at least I do not contribute to the erosion of their faith in humanity.

We gotta pay it forward.

Sunday 20 January 2013

An open letter to Sydney and how I escaped the Jakarta flood

Dear Sydney,

I have been living here for the past decade or so and am rather embarrassed to admit that for the most part, I have been complaining about a lot of things that (in retrospect) I should not be complaining about. Can I get a free pass and attribute this childish act to the fact that I was, in fact, childish and immature?

I whined about the lack of "life" here, it seemed as if everybody is asleep by 7pm (keep in mind, this was a decade ago). The shopping malls cease trading at 6pm on most days, except for Thursday. There really is no entertainment after dinner, except those activities that involve a lot of alcohol, and also the movies. I was not (and still am not) a big movie fan, so this was a pretty big deal to me, okay.

I complained about how everything was/is seemingly crazy expensive here. There is some truth in this one, as Sydney is the second most expensive city in the world, closely following Tokyo. But Sydney is also a pretty good place for living, something that I have always taken for granted. Nothing is for free, thus the high living costs.

There are a lot of other things that I whined about - some of those things involve prejudices, racist encounters and the like. This was Sydney more than a decade ago. A lot have changed since then and the Sydney we know in 2013 is a lot more tolerant and open than it has ever been before, and I am not just saying this because I have been here a long time. Try to be the receiving end of these unpleasant situations BEFORE you say anything about it in the comments section of this blog which is moderated, thankyouverymuch. (This means, if you leave some dumb-ass comment, it will just be deleted.)  

Appreciating what we've got is an acquired skill. Even till today, I am still learning.

I narrowly escaped the floods in Jakarta.

On Thursday morning (1/17), we woke up to the road in front of the house being flooded. Some brave drivers in some fancy four-wheel-drive were still on the road, and believe it or not, some trishaws. (Yes, the Indonesians have trishaws too.) It was quite amusing that day because while we were trapped in the house, there was still power and clean water. It was all good. Cable TV provided an endless source of entertainment, although what we were more engrossed with was the live coverage by TVOne and MetroTV (I think those were the two stations that were doing the live coverage throughout the day).

Friday morning (1/18) we woke up to a rising water level that nearly reached our house. I should mention that at this stage, almost all of our neighbours were already flooded. We lost power and water this morning. The sky was overcast, while this meant that the house was still cool, it also meant it was nearly darkness. Well, semi-darkness. We navigated our way for half the day, watching the people walking in the street in front of the house nearly swimming. My parents were oddly calm. I was silently freaking out and told the boyf that I wanted to fly out soon.

My Dad agreed. So I got to work, with a dying cell phone (we could not charge them because well, there was no power) and with no internet (this, quite unfortunately, was not due to no power, but this is another story altogether) and thanks to a very kind and loving brother managed to change the tickets to a flight out to Sydney that evening. Sometimes we got lucky like that, you know. The next flight out was on Sunday. There was no way that I was staying in a house with no power for more than a few hours. (I know, this sounds so fucking spoilt, but you try to be in this situation and tell me if you would behave differently - and remember the water level is rising quite rapidly.)

My parents got the task of getting us out of the house, luggage and all. I told the boyf that we were leaving in an hour (this was 12pm, and we did not know what sort of logistical nightmare is ahead of us). I was met with a confused look and "how are we going to get to the airport?". Truth was that, I did not know, and I told him so. But we needed to pack and get ready and just go with the flow (of events, not water).

Thank God I had great parents and a great boyfriend.

We packed.

Dad got us a red boat that could accommodate all of us plus our suitcases and we sat on the boat being pushed by two people.

"Can you fit three people plus three suitcases? Come and have a look."
"Yes"
"How much"
"Up to you"
"Jangan gitu, jadi ga enak saya. Berapa?"
"Terserah aja"
"Seratus"
"Ok"

That trip costed $10 (AUD). Fortune favours the brave.

Long story short, we got to some dry land, and Dad managed somehow to get us to the airport where we spent the next 2 hours eating KFC. My phone died by this stage and for the first time ever I cursed the Blackberry for being so difficult to start once it is switched off. My poor father spent the night restless because he did not know whether we made the flight. (Sorry, Dad, this was unintentional, I promise.)

We made the flight. I wanted to curse Qantas for its terrible service, but I didn't because I was just so fucking grateful for being on the flight.

We reached Sydney and got an Indonesian taxi driver (oh the irony) and got talking about the flood again.

We got home, and I called Dad.

Just in case some of you are thinking that I abandoned my parents (gees, seriously people, do you not think I have a heart), they fled that day, no doubt via a boat too.

The things I appreciate about Sydney.

Where I currently reside, there is no flood. Sydney has better drainage systems and if anything, is running out of water than being flooded by water.

Sydney is safer than a lot of the places that I've been to in this planet. I take it for granted that I can walk in the streets alone.

I complained about the local and state and federal governments, nitpicking all the little bits and pieces that I think they could have done better. Truth is that, the jobs they are currently doing, are pretty good. With the exception of some silly bike policy, which, upon further reflection, is not really the government's fault, but more the rude, inconsiderate bikers' faults.

Sydney has some awesome waterfront views. I always take this for granted.

Sydney has a public transport system. Yes, it needs a lot of improvements and upgrades, but it is functioning.

I complained about taxis in Sydney. Truth is that they are fine, I just have to not look at the state of the taxis that I have been in the past few years. I say this because they did their jobs of getting me from point A to point B in one piece.

I shall try harder to appreciate you more.

Yours truthfully,
@drbelles

Saturday 19 January 2013

Lucky escape

Ah, where do I begin? How I loathe Jakarta? That sounds about right. The ongoing love-hate relationship I have with Jakarta continues. After not being back for years, I was back for a total of 24 hours before the flood started to overtake the city. In some foolish wishful thinking, I was hoping that the water levels would go down and the flood would pass, but there was no such thing. My escape was yesterday afternoon, and that was another story altogether.

The water level was around 2 meters last night. When it is taller than the average human being, chance is that there is no boats. Yes, boats. No, we don't row them, someone else pushes them. Yes, I know, another story altogether. And I shouldn't be blogging because I am so tired and so pissed off.

Then again, can't fight mother nature.

Monday 14 January 2013

A war against genes?

Reading about exercise and eating and how the body works has always been a part of my life, except that I approach it with an increased interest ever since I have started running regularly. Occasionally, I come across articles that are not written by someone from the health industry (or a journalist), like this one (he is a finance blogger) that are thought-provoking in their own ways. 

I suspect that genetics do play a role in how we look, but I refuse to believe that we can't do anything about it. I think what this means is that our bodies agree with different types of food, kind of similar to the propositions of the Blood Type Diet, which I somewhat adhere to. (No, I don't follow it religiously, but I do consume a lot of fried chicken, that is, protein and fat.)

I guess, to put it differently, even when genetics play a role in determining how we look and how fat we weigh, we are not completely helpless about it. 

In case you have not already known, I used to be fat as a child. There were a month or two whereby I was relatively trimmer, but mostly, my childhood was spent being fat, and so were my teenage years. I remember trying to lose weight for the prom - lost maybe about err... 5kgs by eating less and doing zero exercise. I am clumsy and uncoordinated so I always have this aversion to exercise for as long as I can remember. I was the last person to be picked on a team and if I could, I would just avoid the whole thing altogether so that the team has a higher chance of winning. In some ways, I had this frame of mind that I sucked at exercise and did nothing about it. 

Everyone else in my family is slim, and they all look exceptionally well for their ages. I am not just saying this because they are my family and I am therefore biased in my views, I am saying this because it is true. So, I'd like to think that the dominant genes that run in my family is the slim one, and I just fuck it up somewhere, thus I was fat. 

Maybe it is true, and maybe it is not. I have no way of presenting factual evidence given that I was not exactly tracking my progress or documenting the "experiments" that I engaged in. But I do know one thing: physical pain is a sign that something is wrong. Like if your stomach hurts after eating then maybe you've eaten too much, or you've eaten something wrong. Or in my case, gluten intolerant. 

Recently, I began running regularly. I hate to say that I sort of look forward to this on most mornings. And also, small voice, I kind of like it. It makes me feel alive and it is good to be doing that with my body. I mean, it is like I always strive for the best when it comes to my life and everything else that's in it, so I want to apply the same standard with my health and fitness. I am sick of being unfit. 

The more I think about this, the more I realise that this is an on-going, continuous management of exercise and eating, kind of like financial management in one's life. It is not like, right, I have done this, and then I am done for a lifetime, but it is more like, right, today, this is the plan and tomorrow, this is the plan and the day after... bla bla bla. I think if one is trying to lose weight and sign up with Lite and Easy for a lifetime, then chance is that he/she will keep the weight off for as long as he/she is with Lite and Easy. I could be wrong, but the logic makes sense. 

You know, I probably have another good 20 years of running if I am lucky, after wasting about 30 years of chance. I just want to make the most of it now. It also helps with you have colleagues who like running, that kind of encouragement is very useful on the days that you don't feel like running. 

The most useful thing is this: calorie in < calorie out if you want to lose weight. If not, then you gotta make sure that calorie in = calorie out. Some days you eat more than you burn, so just make sure that the next day you burn more than you consume. Easy peasy. 

And if you are naturally skinny, count yourselves lucky. 

Sunday 13 January 2013

It is okay to live for your work

Just a short one.

This morning, after running 11.2kms in 80mins 38 seconds, I stumbled upon this article via random blog-walking. Finally, an article about women who are working who actually make me feel good (dare I say that) about the choices that I've made to date. I am a self-confessed workaholic, although to be completely honest, I am not as workaholic as my friends who work 8-9 and on weekends (ha!). The best line of the article: It is okay to live for your work, thankyouverymuch.

Saturday 12 January 2013

Our love has been more than enough

This morning, taking a trip down memory lane with the words "I wish you enough". Back in my early days of blogging, not using my name all over the net, waaay before blogging with Fox (which has since been shut down as a platform), I stumble upon those words. He wrote about his break up with his then girlfriend, and of the pain and the sorrows that he felt at the time, yet with a clear conscience to let go of her, of his love and of memories of them together, as well as any hopes and fears that he had for the two of them.

He said: I wish you enough.

We became friends in real life (in addition to virtual world). He has since found love and got married to a wonderful woman, and we became friends too.

(Yes, if you google "I wish you enough" you would get various versions floating around the web, I have absolutely no idea who has got the original source.)

So. In light of recently saying good bye to a dear friend, not a forever goodbye, more like a long-term temporary goodbye...


I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish enough "Hello's" to get you through the final "Goodbye".

Our love has been more than enough. I wish you enough. 

(This is taken directly from this website)

Friday 11 January 2013

Sydney v Melbourne

We went to Melbourne a few days ago. It was a very pleasant experience. I love, love, love that city.

One thing that was so obvious was how nice the people in Melbourne were. No, this is not only limited to the hotel workers who are by default would almost always be nice to you. I am referring to the people on the street, friendly strangers who would strike a conversation with you just because they like your shoes.

Given the friendliness of the locals, it is almost a natural extension that shopkeepers in Melbourne are nice, afterall, they come from the same pool of nice people. Within 5 seconds of walking into a Melbourne store, be it Zara, or General Pants, or Hermes and Chanel, I received the "Hi, how are you? Can I help you with anything today?" with a wide smile to boot.

Call me crazy, but I can't quite recall when I received a similar greeting when I am shopping in Sydney. And I shop quite often - it is my addiction, one that I am not interested in letting go. Ha!

The Melbourne shopkeepers really know what customer service is all about, and they deliver every single time. When they asked "how is everything" after you try on jeans/shoes/whatever, and you give the standard response of "it's too small/big", they will immediately offer to find you a suitable size. And when you tried it on, and you ended up not liking it, they would ask you what it was that you were looking for and actually showed you what they currently had in the stores.

The best bit: they never pushed to make a sale. At least not to me, anyway. They offerred to check other stores just to see if they had the item I wanted to purchase, and gave me alternatives to purchase, including checking their online stores (some items are more readily available online, they said).

So. Some of you may say that this treatment happened because of how I looked. Or specifically what I wore. You know, when shopkeepers treat you nicely because you are carrying a designer handbag. I honestly don't think so. I was wearing a pair of rubber thongs. This is because my shoes gave up on me, okay, and I had to frantically find a new pair of shoes, and meanwhile had to make do with the rubber thongs.

I am not alone in being alienated in the Sydney retail scene. I have lost count as to how many people told me about their terrible experience in the physical stores and I have lost count as to how many articles I have read about how and why online shopping is easier and so much better - and it is not just about the cost.

That brings me to my next point - cost. I admit that if you know where to look, you could almost always score a better deal online. And logic tells me that online stores have lower overheads so they could get away with charging lower prices compared to the physical stores, but I honestly don't think most people are that price sensitive. I mean, really, seriously? Given that most people in this planet generally don't pay that much attention to their money, is it a given that they are that cost-conscious?

I am of a firm believe that the reason people resort to online stores is first and foremost because of the ease of doing so. These days, I am too tired to battle other shoppers and to dig the bargain bin (something that I used to find tremendous enjoyment out of). I prefer going running and then logging into my pc and start browsing. With online shopping, I can sort with a few clicks of a button, purchase with a few more clicks and then in the next few days, I receive a pleasant surprise from the postman. It is too easy, too pleasant, and I don't have to deal with rude shopkeepers.

I don't want to say that Sydney shopkeepers are generally rude, but I'd like to say that they can learn from their Melbourne counterparts. I mean, just to give them the benefit of the doubt, it may very well be that they do not know what is expected of them. Maybe, just maybe, they were not trained properly? Or no one actually holds them to a higher standard?

Of course, there is really no excuse for terrible customer service. These days, I derive very little enjoyment from shopping in a physical shopping, with the exception of shopping in Melbourne.

Another thing that contributes to the ease of online shopping is the elimination of waiting. In life, I am somewhat rather impatient when it comes to waiting in the line for ... anything, especially waiting to pay for something I want to buy. It is like, really, I have made the decision to purchase, so come and get my money already! Don't make me wait for much longer because I might end up changing my mind and there goes your revenue. And yes, in case you are wondering, this happened many times, so many times that I give up going to a store when I want to purchase something. I much rather do it online: no waiting, no carrying bags, everything delivered to my home. Awesome!

Does this mean physical stores will become extinct? I don't know. I sure hope not. Because I kind of like the stores in Melbourne and I really can't imagine Melbourne without the shopping experience. In a way, I associate Melbourne with shopping, physical shopping that is.

The stores in Melbourne are pretty much similar to the stores that are in Sydney: Zara, Cue, Review, Saxony and the like. Yet for some reason, the Melbourne stores have a lot more options, more stock, better display and of course, courteous and friendly shopkeepers. It is easier to shop in Melbourne than in Sydney.

In Sydney, I walk into a store and the first thing the shopkeepers do is to check my handbag - what brand is it, what season, bla bla bla. If I happen to carry a relatively new designer handbag, then I may get a hello. If not, forget it. I have to quite literally be ready with my wallet open before they would even entertain my requests. I get that we are all judgmental like that, especially if you are in retail, but do you really have to make it that obvious?

This is not to say that I don't love Sydney. I do. I love Sydney too, for different reasons than I love Melbourne. This is largely because Sydney is my home, at least for the time being. And people in Sydney, some of us are nice, some of us are not so nice, it just depends on how hot the weather is. Kidding. Most of us are nice, especially when we want your money and we know you've got the moolah.

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Hairstyle and Gossip Girl

I caught up with a friend over lunch the other day. I have not seen her for months, and I was not sure that it was her when I first saw her. 

Because she's got short hair. 

That got me thinking about the length of my hair. I have been contemplating cutting my hair for the past few weeks, but am yet to gather all the courage needed to actually do it. I have asked my stylist of his opinion and he said it is a good idea. I think he said that because he has never actually seen me with short hair. 

The ultimate deterrent for me is the fact that I always regret cutting my hair immediately after the first snip. I don't know why it is the case, I guess, for lack of a better description, I like my hair long, the longer the better sort of thing. I am not the person who can pull of the short hair look. There are some people who look really hot with short hair, and I am definitely not one of those people. 

So the above really means I have not changed my hair length for the past err... decade or so. I quite vividly remember a friend, who had not seen me for years, saw me again and the first he said was: oh, you haven't changed. I am not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. I guess it can be both? Like it is a good thing because you have not aged one single second, but it is a bad thing because it quite literally means you are stuck in rut. Gah. 

Why change something that works best for you? There is a reason as to why I am happy to keep my hair this length and that is because I think this is the best look for me. Or I should say, this is the look that I most prefer on me. I don't think I can live with myself if I dislike how I look. 

That said, I shall keep my hair long, thankyouverymuch.

On a completely different note.

Gossip Girl has finally aired its season finale. I am glad that Blair ended up being with Chuck. I kind of like their love story. It is like... if you are meant to be together, then you will end up being together. Yeah, it is cheesy like that. I like cheese. Don't judge me okay. I am slim skinny. 

Gossip Girl is one of those things that you either love or hate. Like durian. There are three things that I like about Gossip Girl - one is Leighton Meester, gosh, she is so hawttt. Two is Blair and Chuck, the love story. Three is the fashion, what else. Told you I am a sucker for beautiful things. 

And yes, I do miss episodes of Gossip Girl. 

 

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Quickie

Hey guys,

Just a quick note on a follow up on how everything is as they should be. Kind of like a realisation (again) from me that everything is indeed as they should be. I know that this drives some of you totally nuts (because we are masters of our own destinies - and I share that opinion, to a certain extent), but I promise this is not intended to annoy you. Rather this is me apologising for not replying to your emails on time and not being able to meet up with you in the near future. I realise that this is partially my fault for not being as organised as I can be, then again, one needs to be somewhat not organised before one can be back to being organised again yes?

It doesn't make sense, I know. Life happens, and I am living it. I hope you are too.


Wednesday 2 January 2013

On new year resolutions

I am not the type who makes new year resolutions because I always promptly forget about them the next moment after I made them. It is not that I don't believe in their effectiveness, because coupled with will power and persistence, these things can be pretty nifty in changing your lives, but it is just that quite frankly, the turn of the new year is just another excuse to party which I haven't taken up in the past few years because I just could not be bothered.

There is all this talk along the lines of whatever you do today is going to affect the rest of your life bla bla blah and it is just, like, what? So if you happen to have a shitty day today then your year is doomed to be shitty. NOT! I get that we all want to be happy, but why force ourselves to be happy all the time? Let's face it, we can't be happy all the time, we can be happy most of the time. If the first day of the new year turns out to be not so great, it is fine, it is just ONE day out of the 365 or 366 days, it does not mean anything else other than the fact that you did not have a good day.

But what you did about not having a good day - that's what matters.

Ah the things that we were told when we were growing up. Some call it terrible parenting, while I just refer to it as... the best that they can do given the circumstances. I mean, really, the last thing I can do is to criticise my own parents in terms of their parenting, and GOD knows, they are probably disappointed at some level given how differently their children turned out from what they have envisioned. However, this is not something anyone should be apologising for - really, why apologise for being yourself and living your life? If anything, apologise for not being yourself and not living your life, and start living your life on the terms that you are comfortable with.

And ensure that your new years resolutions are in line with that.  

Tuesday 1 January 2013

The finest things in life

Some things in life just cannot be captured by words. Or maybe I should have phrased that as some things in life I cannot describe with words. Like this.

I looked at it and I must say I am definitely inspired. Inspired to live my life like that.

So that would be my new year's resolution this year.

Happy new year!