not BOMBASTIC enough

in the effort  to furnish my diamond and pearls collection, i stumbled into the thought of selling my writing or the end result of me rambling. so i approach a "reporter" and submit a what i would think of as a compelling story about human life and its misfortunes.

With bold intentions and fired up spirit i put forward the idea and got this as a response : "the idea behind the story you wish to write lacks what we called the X factor. people dont want to read about someone who had experience fire twice, but if that person has experience fire five times, now that is a story".

my reactions, in chonological order, was "i hope you dont have to go through it the near future", "drama is what the media seek", and "misfortune will not make the media if it is only experienced twice, yet once is bearing for most people, but certainly not for you; five seems to be the lucky number"

despite of my willingness to push through and be persistent, i postponed my intentions and mourn the fact that when speaking about the media, jumping hoops dont cut it, one need to at least die and live again five times.

A wedding in September

Supposedly the inauguration of two love-birds into holy matrimony.

Dont get me wrong, it was a spectacular event for the newlyweds, but not so much for the guess particularly those who were families of indo-chinese decendants.
Let me just say, i too, before should be blamed for judging and throwing comments at the event. My apologies, but today i managed to shed a light into my small brain and realized that it was unnecessary.

I should start by declaring that it was not a typical indo-chinese wedding, since it was not a seated-dinner arrangement and there were no chinese dishes whatsoever yet it was, IMHO, a fabolous party.

1. The food.
Hail to PePeNERO for serving some of their finest food for the wedding. As a guest, my pallate was amused with the range of pizza, pasta, salad, bread, calamari and fruits provided, not to mention an open BAR of liquor boooyaaaaaaaaaaaah that will keep on being served until midnight.

For me or those big fans of cucina italiana, the food is heaven and you simply cant ask for more of what's being served. But not with the indo-chinese relatives, they first complained for not being able to find rice, and then moved on to tasteless food, in their humble opinion.

2. The Venue
Im not much of a wedding-goer, but this is my first time attenting a wedding in a classy, decent, delicious italian restaurant considering that this is an indo-chinese wedding, this wedding is AWESOME. I must say i didnt think that this was possible.

Indonesians do away with Balai Kartini, Hotel's ballroom, garden houses, beach party, but Italian resto? decent italian resto, open bar?? get real.. this doesn't come around that often. Some of my friends envied me for going to this wedding, cause they know they too would have a good time.

Again the guests complained on how there were no chairs and there were tired of wearing high heels. hmm.. yuhu.. i recalled the MC announcing numerous times that there are tables and chairs outside (for smokers) and upstairs. Plus, there were a bar and a bar stool.  Look around much?

3. The Bride and Groom
Now this would be what i called typical Indo commnet, not just Indo-chinese. They would say something like this: "hmm i believe the previous boyfriend was more handsome" or "eeekkhh i prefer the previous girlfriend" or "OMG look at the make-up, it's so last year" or "the dress could be use for curtains".

4. The Questions for Singles
A slight derogation to the focus of the wedding, this is just something ordinary in any Indo or probably any wedding. A question asked to those supposedly miserable singles "when will you tie the knot?" or "what are you waiting for?" or "your wedding next month".

5. The Guess
You can hear and see people wander the room to check who is there and who is not there and continue to ponder on why he/she is or is not there. Thus, make comments as to why one close to the heart (in their opinion) or one close to home (speaking demography) is not invited.

The story between the lines are these:
We often forget that it is not our wedding, regardless of what culture we are in (be aware that im not a big fan of ridiculous proceedings), weddings are about those being tied in holy matrimony. It may also be a celebration for parents who have been raising them, but the star of the show is the bride and groom. When you are the star, the odds are ,most of the time, things are going to be decorated, tailored and presented in a way that suits your preference and not others - family or not, chinese or not.
So dont be baffled by the fact the things does not suit your preferred dietary restriction, the fact that people do stay and drink till they drop, the fact that you dont like any of the things being served does not matter, it's their show.

Again, it is THEIR wedding. As much as I want to invite the whole world, and pick a venue that can fit the whole world, it is not ours to say, it;s theirs, the bride and groom. All decisions I believed has be tailored to suit their financial abilities and preferred options; unless mom and dad are the ones paying :P
Unfortunately, i live in a society that needs to invite each and every one even those with the slightest connection be it blood or acquaintance. The irony is that, everyone agreed on how expensive weddings are here, and yet, even when the resources are not sufficient, they still insist to have the so-called "INDO wedding"  meaning inviting everyone within 5km radius from home and work, oh dont forget relatives whom you have never heard or seen before but surely exists cause you uncle from your father's second cousin daughter's second wife is still alive. It is believed to be extremely rude not to invite everyone but no consideration on who should be responsible to pay for it all.
Dont even think to rebutt me with the argument of "BEP" (break even point) when you invite the big guns. Meaning you might make a profit even when you invite and throw a MEGA party. Jeeezzz, weddings are not meant to be a business (maybe for Wedding organizers) but not for the bride and groom whose goal is to celebrate their love.

Last but not least, stereotypes and typical questions. I know culture, norms and habits only change slowly through a couple of hundred years, but do we really need to uphold all the ridiculous things that evolves around it just for the sake of not being the talk of the town?
I can guarantee most will say it is not an easy thing to do (being different, going against what is considered normal) but when will it change if it does not start with us?

The bottomline of my experience tonight was that why cant people do away with us being ourself? is it so hard to just ignore or even pretend that we like everything they did cause we know it meant a lot for them?
And we are expected to care about those we barely know, how is this possible, when in our daily life where all of the interactions and experiences actually matters, those so-called relatives or acquaintences are never present?
Humans dont go living their life only of memories of how their parents won the war and how his fellow platoons save their lifes, we go on living and sorting who-is-who in our life by going through life with them, not the other way around.

Let there be more weddings like this (venue, food and choice of music wise) without the miniscule, ignorant,  narrow-minded guests.

Pertama

one of the first entertaining conclusion i came up with at my new office.

#1 whoever get a seat close to the air con (split air con) needs to be aware, you are put there for a reason. it's usually because you would most likely still be working (or waiting) by the time the central air con is turned off.

:(

Flight passengers: an observation

This is my observation. a mere conclusion of the attitude of people within an aircraft during my visit in 2010.

Mostly the attitude annoys me but i've made peace with it.

My conclusion is passengers from Jakarta to Sumatra are more hostile and aggressive compared to those going to cities in Java.

Example 1: PoS (Passengers going to Sumatra) never turn off their phone unless they are told by the steward/stewardess to do so. PoJ (Passengers going to Java) most of them follow the instructions. only few of PoJ waited to be told to turn off their mobile phones.

The same thing happens after landing, in a plane full of PoS, as soon as the plane touches the ground, specific mobile phone tunes roared. But with flight going to PoJ, i didnt hear any.

Example 2: Even before the plane came to a full stop, PoS would directly get up their chairs and take their bags and try to walk to the exit door. PoJ, although still tries to immediately take their bags and belongings, they at least waited until the plane has come to a full stop.

Example 3: PoJ does not push and shove you as aggressive as PoS does. But they all kinda disturb your smelling sense a bit.

I need to establish that this conclusion is not only derived from a one time going to Sumatra or Java on a plane. Among the unfortunate things I've come across this year, going places around Indonesia is the carrot.

These inconvenience might just happened because of my choice of "promo-ticket" strategy, but still, i like to think that most people have been on an airplane before and most definitely know how to go about it.

but hey... i might be wrong..

how about we incorporated field trips starting from elementary school level and up on how to behave in an aircraft: do's and don'ts!

You with me?

The Crater is not Tangkuban perahu

a trip up the hill is just what i needed.

some say i've been goofing around, but i'll say i've spending my time wisely. :P.
And also i've made this trip up the hill as one of my wish list before i say goodbye to Bandung (not that i know when this will happen :P). you can find the post here.

The road was not too bad. although there was NO signs on where to go about Kawah Putih. Fortunate for me, i got myself a rental car with a driver that knows directions. So the journey begins.

The trip took us about 2,5 - 3 hours from Bandung. This mostly depends on the traffic since you would have no choice cause you would have to pass through a road that is narrow, hectic and filled with angkot and beloved indo bikers (this would translate into simplified example of Jakarta's traffic).

The topography is mostly like driving to Puncak - heaps of twist and turns - but with more rice fields scenery instead of tea plantation. The view changed from lines of houses into rice fields and a group of trees (which name i dont know but it has skinnly thin sort-of-peeling trunk) and my driver told us we were close when see this trees.

A gate and a line of so-called transporting vehicle took us to the crater and the view was what the French would call c'est manifique!

The day ends with a nice lunch at Sindang Reret - sundanese.

Enjoy the picts peeps!!!













the company.



this should be enough for now.. :D

a lil something for you to know

FYI, i dont even know why i should post this comment or let alone triggered by it, but i just do. Gonna blame it on my PMS (ha ha).

But seriously, there's a comment in one of Indon mailing list saying that Jason Mraz concert was awesome like my previous post and then the Indon said Mraz's voice was even better than his CD, and the person wondered when will Indon singers would be able to do the same.

I am like? WHUATTTTT?????
as much as i am embarrassed to see a LOT of things gone wrong in Indon, having a good performer slash singer slash band who can really rock a live performance is not rare. Indon does have sleazy singers slash band doing crappy live. But seriously, like my previous post described, Jason Mraz's performance reminds me of Tompi's performance in Planet Hollywood [Girsang, 2008]. Gosh, I missed those fun times watching live performances in Bandung.

Hey, Take a look at performances from Tompi, Gigi, Dewa (regardless of Ahmad Dhani's attitude), Rio Febrian, Joy Tobing, Glenn Fredly, Mocca, /RIF (Hell YEAH!!), Rieka Roslan, Kerispatih, ParkDrive, Ari Lasso, and even T-Five to name a few. My gosh i've seen them all perform and they give me the chills. They all may not be as enchanting and charming as Mraz or Justin Timberlake or The Police, still Indon does have brilliant live performer slash singer slash band. Dont believe me? why dont you come out and play sometime, dont mind taking you to an awesome Indon concert.

Capish?!#$$^%&!!!!

ps: Happy birthday Bang Pal!!