THE HIP

Good Foods in Balikpapan

2009-10-31T10:51:00.002+07:00

Some of the good eating place in Balikpapan I found after one month living in Balikpapan:

Rawon Empal (meat with black soup): At Balikpapan baru front commercial place, next to an electric shop. Rawon Empal from this place is soooo good it makes me always want to go there. They also sell Soto Ayam and Bakpau (meatbun).

Ayam Goreng Presiden (President Fried Chicken): on Balikpapan Baru Fantasy Junction, try to locate this place. It is on the outer side of the Fantasy Junction near the road that lead to Sungai Ampal. The fried chicken in this place is so delicious it melts my mouth.

Solaria on Hypermart Balikpapan: Rawon in this place is delicious. Try it if you go to Hypermart Balikpapan.

Ayam Goreng Penyet: if you go from Sungai Ampal toward Index Furnishing direction, take a left turn and take the road toward Kimia Farma, but watch out for an eating place offering this ayam goreng penyet (squeezed fried chicken). Good taste, good price.

Seqo Ayam Lawuh Lodo: If you go toward Sungai Ampal from Gunung Guntur or Karang Rejo, don't miss this place. Only open at night, placed right after the motorbike only fuelstation. The spiced fried chicken in this place is top notch!

A Week of Masuk Angin and Et Cetera

2009-10-25T08:43:00.003+07:00

There are lotsa things happening for the last week. Many-many things. Let's see.

From Monday to Wednesday I tried to replace my breakfast of Nasi Kuning (Yellow Rice) with four loaves of bread with jam and peanut butter. I can hold on for three days and but my body went haywire on the third night. At first I thought I was just tired. I reverted back to Nasi Kuning as breakfast but with no luck. For three days my head was pounding with headache. On Friday my back got hurt. This is the classic signs of "Masuk Angin (wind intrusion)". You won't find this in medical reference, this is one of those Only in Indonesia items :)

The medical reference tells me about deposition of lactic acid on my body that is caused by cold draft of air conditioners or winds. Make sense. I drive motorbike each day to get me everywhere and causing me to be pounded by wind drafts on my chest. I have air conditioner on my house to cope with Balikpapan hot and humid climate. Plus, the rainy season seems to have come to Balikpapan.

So I decided to do what traditionally have been done by many people: back scratching. I applied warming balm on my temples, back of my neck, and my back and then scratch those places with a singaporean coin. Not much help there. When my cousin who accompanied me each night came home, I told him to scratch me because I have Masuk Angin. He then scrathed me. The results? I feel better and able to sleep deeper than previous three days. So deep, I awoke this morning at 7 a.m although I slept at 9 p.m last night. I slept for 10 hours. Probably because my body demands those lost sleep hours.

Okay, enough about that.

I lived in a row of newly or being built houses that are built close to each other. My neighboring house on my left has been undergoing expansion for more than week now. The pounding of hammers, the cutting of the woods, the grinding of the grindstones, the screamings of the working labors now accompany me each weekend. Not that I am that bothered with the sounds, I am simply worried that their works will collapse my walls because you can feel their pounding on my walls. Yeah, the house were built that close.

This week also marked my first week returning to after office fun volley ball session after so many weeks absent. It was fun. We play simply for the laughs and to find some good sweat to let go that feel of cold and dryness we get after a day inside a cooled box that is our office. It has been a fun occassion for participants every thursday. Besides biking and walking, this is my only sport ;)

Two guys come to my house yesterday's afternoon. They offered me curtain making to adore and protect my house. I agreed to their offers and but I told them that I can not pay them right away since I have budgeting allocations already for my wedding, my housing loan annuity, and day to day lives. They understand that and will be waiting for my call. Always good to have people with good skills come to offer their services directly at home. I have had a guy offered me to make a canopy on my carport but I refused cause I have no car, just a bike. I also had a guy offered me to make precipitation tank for my water supply but I refused cause the water supply is in adequate quality already.

That's my update as Lord of A Small House :)

Incompetencies and Snobs

2009-10-17T05:47:00.003+07:00

I work for a multinational company that is proud of their excellencies in work ethics and punctualities; a bastion of qualities, if you will. I have been working for this particular companies for a year and four months after having my tenure for other company of the same field but lesser remunerations (and qualities).

This week, from wednesday to thursday, I attented training on MERAK PEEP, a software that help petroleum engineers and business planners to asses the value of a project. It was a good training, both refreshing and eye opening. There are more to this software beyond what I have been doing with it. It's a good training all and all, although the room where the training was done could benefit more from less air conditioning. Felt like I was in the mountain but without the fresh air.

The weather was not altogether sunny. Gloom with heavy rain poured several times during days and nights. Not that I have trouble with the weather. Transports are available on call if I want to go somewhere in the complex where the training was held. They are usually reliable.

But there is no such things as 100% reliable. The last day in the compound, where I was supposed to be picked up at 6.30 a.m, turned out to be a day where incompetencies accumulated. The story goes like the following:

My friend and me have a flight at 9.10 a.m. We need to be at the airport at 8.10 at least to have proper check-in. This being Indonesia and all, you can not at 100% sure that the schedule would go as planned. Sometimes they are late, but surprise surprise, sometimes they are much earlier. So we Indonesian need to go to airport TWO HOURS earlier than flight schedule just to be sure.

So yeah, we wanted to be picked up at 6.30 a.m jut to make sure.

So then it was 6.45 a.m. Several pick up cars went by and none of them were scheduled to pick us up. We were curious, so we call the transport dispatcher. He said the car is rolling.

7 a.m. No cars were coming. My friend go furious and called the dispatcher again and this time they said that the car has just been rolled out. Stupid, my friend said, we clearly ordered 6.30!

7.15. No cars were coming. We got furious. My friend called the dispatcher and unload his anger to him. The dispatcher apologized and said the car was in another location, picking up some guys who are still eating.

At this point our anger welled up.

7.30 the car came, bring with him two other passangers. Young, inexperienced, but looked like spoilt brait and downright snobbish.

So we got in the car, and the driver gave no apologizes whatsoever. I kept my silence, but my friend blew up in anger and got furious with the driver. The driver pointed at his early passangers. Then my friend got furious with the early passangers who looked like a bunch of new recruits with no field experiences and ego as inflated as the wall street before the toxic credits meltdown. My friend lashed out time and time again during the drive from the compound to the airport. He blamed the other passangers for not attentive to the times and for making us suffer because we were forced to skip breakfast and wait for an hour while they enjoy their morning with breakfast. He then looked at the supposed scheduling of the driver and pointed out that the other two passengers supposed to be picked up at 6.30 too but they showed their incompetencies, non-punctualities, irresponsibilites and their insensitivities by ordering breakfast at 6.30 and kept us waiting while they eat.

Finally, after my friend lashed out for half an hour or so, one of the young ones, the snobbiest looking of them, explained that they ordered the car to be arrive at 7 a.m.

So my friend then lashed out at the driver and said why didn't he picked us up first if their schedule was 7 a.m? The driver said it was the dispatcher who told us to pick them first. Then he grunted and got furious with the dispatcher.

At this point, we are not sure whose to blame. The fact is that we were discarded, misinformed, and kept hungry due to the non-punctuality of the transportation.

It was ten minutes after checked in that we are told to board the plane. What if the driver picked us up 50 minutes past 7?We would be discarded even more!

And to our surprise, the snobs were nowhere to be found, so we assumed they are flying with company plane that the passengers supposed to be get picked up by BUS AND NOT BY CAR!

The incompetencies baffled me.

It was good that the driver and those two snobs utter their apologizes, otherwise we would curse them forever.

Miyabi as potential Autocatalyzed Demoralization

2009-10-12T09:55:00.001+07:00

One: By acknowledging that some parts of our college students or college graduates have Miyabi embedded so deep in their culture, deep enough for them to write a story about a storymaker who are so enthralled by Miyabi he wants to kidnap her; deep enough for a filmmaker gang to consider the story worth filming and not hesitant on doing so is so...I don't know, not signaling a good paths on the way the culture of this nation will go forward.

Two: By putting Miyabi, a proven, open wide, full frontal, pornographic cultural icon into our fledgling modern movie industries which already filled with half-baked pornographic elements will potentially be setting back the Indonesian movie industries clock to a decade or two decades ago where the movies produced are either crotch oriented or scream oriented. The industry will fall into a trap of easy movie making instead of going the way of more intelligent movies like Ada Apa dengan Cinta and Merantau. You can point the blame on moviegoers also, but if the industry refuse to go the way of Gadis Metropolitan and strive forward to produce modern, good, and educating movies (hey, even Knocked Up and Pineapple Express is an educating movie, albeit a little "adult"), then the moviegoers will get educated, and soon the entire industri will autocatalyzed into something better.

But if Miyabi is set on stone and make into a trend, then, wow, can not imagine what if there is a story about kidnapping Julia Perez or kidnapping Sarah Azhari in the future.....

Three: The underlying problem about religion, especially in an Islam dominated country, will trigger several morale and cultural debates, aside from obvious religious debates. The fact that some of you already pointed out that it is given that Indonesian people are morally hypocritical is not helping either. Pointing out the obvious is easy, painting people's value by using general stereotype is not helping, and acting like the cultural perversion is not a big thing (everybody does Miyabi, so what?) is aggravating the already confused grass root people.

Where should they go if the rise of Ayat-ayat Cinta and Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 1 and 2 is contemporary with the rise of Paku Kuntilanak and Menculik Miyabi? Where should they go if the rise of Jilbab as fashion trend is contemporary with the coronation of Putri Indonesia who comes from a place traditionally associated with Jilbab but doesn't use one?

The (alas) inevitable arrival of Miyabi should be seen with wary eyes to those who feel that something is amiss in the modern culture of Indonesian middle class. That something is clear moral direction.

Lord of Small House - Brooms, Mops, and Laundry

2009-10-12T04:43:00.006+07:00

A task of any homeowners everywhere is to fill up their houses with things used daily: mops, brooms, ironing tables, chairs, racks for dishes, utensils, etc. I just did this task yesterday, bought everything up in the local Hypermart, a giant hypermarket with everything in it. I bought a hammer, dishwashing sponge, two small boxes, an ironing table, a foldable chair, a broom, a mop, dust collector, small dish rack, naphthalene, clothlines, foldable cloth hanger, etc. Those things make my little house looks more like a house than before ;)

Being a lone lord of a small house, I simply unable to wash my clothes alone and have to send them to a laundry. The way the laundry works is that you put your laundry in, they measure the weight of the whole package and charge you accordingly, and you get them after three days.

That's how it supposes to work.

But the thing is: sometimes they are not able to finish it in three days due to varius reasons such as broken washing machine, crazy weather, etc. I need to very cautious with my clothes and use them as required only. I even need to do laundry on my own underwear on my own least I don't have ones when required. I guess being a lone fighter teaches you to be wary of everything.

My Lot

2009-10-09T18:43:00.001+07:00

I am now proclaiming that I have a myLot User Profile

That's it. Enjoy.

My real lot, however, is at the biggest private housing complex in Balikpapan, Balikpapan Baru :)

I Am Stories

2009-10-08T18:38:00.002+07:00

For the past few years, I have been thinking that my true life is to tell stories to people. I love thinking about stories. I also love to simply does random story telling in my head, for my own pleasure. It feels that stories I composed and played in my head are my own tranquilizer, my crack, my dope, my weed. I feel calm after playing them.

Is there any psychological explanation for such condition? No? Then let me compose a story about it anyway, on my own term, for my own pleasure.

There are stories in my head I wish to share to all. This is one of them. Tales of Vanima Forest is a tale of high fantasy set on a world called Earth, where sentient races live and fight to continue for their lives. It features Elves, Orcs, Gnomes, Dwarvs, Goblins, Trolls, and Humans, twenty thousands years since the fall of the Split Star.

Please follow it :)

Hanging There

2009-10-07T08:13:00.002+07:00

There is nothing more shameful than to see the representatives of people DOZING OFF on their first day of the job.

I simply can not understand the mentality of these so called representatives. They spent billions of rupiah each month to enrich themselves and they can not, at least, sit right up and be sober on their jobs.

I simply can not understand...

But what I can understand is the fact that they do something hard, and that something is not being a representative, but being the henchmen of some cabal of manipulative bastards (read: the army and their protected businessmen).

They are like a plague that needs to be get rid of. 550+ people spending billion of rupiah each month for nothing but messing with the executive branch.

The Lost

2009-10-06T03:25:00.000+07:00

Being lonely at night, in a two storied house with two bedrooms and a bathroom, one can somehow get the feeling that he is, in fact, kinda lost.

Lost in his loneliness. Lost in a place no one is seeing. Lost in a place some people would call depressive.

Somehow, I simply love being lost. Being lost sometimes can force me to think, and when I am forced to think, I will simply move. When I move, no one can stop time till I got exhausted or I simply lost the drive behind what I do.

Lately I have been thinking that I lost something that keeps me going. But after awhile, I came to the conclusion that I didn't lose anything, I simply burdened by something I am kinda opposite to. That something is growing up. Become responsible. Become planner for the future. Prepare self for making a family.

Grow up.

For some, growing up could simply mean becoming lost in a world that they have never know how to adapt. For me, growing up is a progress I need to take slow.

But the world has never allowed me to go slow and force me to stroll along in a continuous path. Move here, do that, do this, come here, go there, up, down, left, right, stay, move.

After thinking for awhile, I come to conclusion that I somehow need to get lost. To shed myself of the burden of growing up and take responsibility. For awhile, not forever. Little time to find my core, to truly root myself to something stable.

To truly know who I am and what I need to be, I need to be lost.

To seek guidance from within, I need to let go of the hands that have been holding me.

To truly become me, I need to undo my current self.

I need to become The Lost.

Sunday Walk is For The Health

2009-10-05T09:59:00.004+07:00

Got out of home yesterday, 6.30 in the morning. The sky is cloudy. The housing complex streets were empty. My feet were anxious. So I put on my training and shoes and walk out. Simply walk, enjoying the idle morning and also trying to get to know my new habitat.

It turns out there was an aerobic session held in Fantasy Junction area of Balikpapan Baru. I don't know if that session is weekly or just that. I hope it's weekly cause I think I need to do aerobic.

It turns out my housing complex is only one of so many housing complex that form a megacomplex. There are Balikpapan Baru housing complex, Regional Government (PEMDA) housing complex, WIKA housing complex, and so on. I started from one of BB housing complex cluster and ended up on the mouth of PEMDA housing complex.

It turns out that each sunday morning food stalls are already open. There are various food stalls available for hungry morning walkers like me. I chose two portions of Nasi Kuning (Yellow Rice) complete with chickens and boiled eggs. One for me and one for my cousing who keeps me company each night.

After I bought the nasi kuning for breakfast, I walked home, sweaty and all. Got home, and I eat one portion of the nasi kuning and drink water, sweat pouring from my pores. The thing with me is that I hardly sweat during walking or running, but AFTER walking or running and stop will I sweat. A lot. Especially if I eat something spicy afterward. Hot spice (chili, pepper) and me are enemies.

Well, it was a healthy sunday walk. I think I will try walking again this afternoon, just to try.

Gray Sky Is Not Humanly

2009-10-03T06:48:00.003+07:00

For a week now I have been under a gray sky here in Balikpapan. I have told you about the burning woods in South and Central Kalimantan, and those burnt woods are still smoldering smokes and the fire is still raging. Smoke is nowhere to be gone, even after reaching second week of smokefest.

Now the sky is grayed even more with the rain that came down almost non-stop from wednesday night to friday night. The gray clouds are still hanging outside my windows now, adding the mood of laziness to this already mostly silent neighborhood.

Gray Sky Is Not Humanly.

As I rode my motorbike yesterday, the thought came to my mind. Not only does the gray sky add the overall feeling of gloom to the emotions of human underneath it, but it also reduces the colors of live, and if it persists, the feeling of laziness soon strike the heart of humans that look at it.

It is as if humanity is powered by the yellow sun, and gray cloud are the inhibitor of that power.

As for motorbike riders like myself, we think the gray cloud that hang above us as a spectre of potential hazards. The only things protecting us from torrent of rains that can come down suddenly are the clothes on our bodies and the helmets on our heads. We need to pull over to pull our respective rain deterrent equipments, but that's if we can pull over. If not, then we will be unceremoniously bathed in rain that pierced our bodies as we speed up to reach our destinations and risking to have tire slips or other kind of accidents caused by our helmet visor mostly covered by rain or the slippery roads.

And in motorbike dominated roads of Balikpapan, the potential of having accidents during rain is multiplied.

And I pray that the rain that was hitting my face as I speed up was not carrying acid that was born out of the reaction of the burning woods smoke and cloud-borne moisture.

Overall, Gray Sky Is Not Humanly.

Fire in The Forests, Quakes in the Waves, Tears in Their Eyes

2009-10-01T09:31:00.002+07:00

Indonesia is a country marred in disasters ever since Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono (popularly known as SBY) took office. First the gigantic Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami that killed hundred of thousands of Aceh people. Then quakes in other major islands of Indonesia such as Java and Sulawesi. Then forest fires. Then mudslides. So on and so on.

Following the Great 21st century Eearthquake, there has been a chain of non-stop Earthquakes happening in west coasts of Sumatra. The latest one was yesterday afternoon. 7.8 Richter scale Earthquake hit West Sumatra Province and has cause unmeasurable damages to the infrastructures and lives of people of West Sumatra.

Condolescences to them.

It will always feels devastating to see people uprooted from their homes, forced to cope with the elements with minimal equipments to do so.

It will always feel devastating to see children, innocent children, being exposed to ruins, elements, and overall feeling of glooms.

It will always feel devastating to see people having Natural disasters in their live.

And it will always feel enraging to see a head of a country, be it a president or a despot, happily, merrily enjoying his trip abroad while his people, his supposed masters, are in suffering.

SBY is having a leisure time in the USA, doing God knows what after G20 meeting and Harvard speech. Probably begging for more money. Probably plotting more conspiracies. Probably both.

Probably he doesn't know or doesn't care that the day before West Sumatra quakes, Jakarta began to suffer electrical brownouts due to a huge transformers went down and take Jakarta with it while giving out billowing smokes.

Probably he doesn't care that days before he left, Kalimantan (a.k.a Borneo) island, the largest island of Indonesia, has also been billowing celestial amount of smoke resulted from "forest fires". This gargantuan smoke has been blanketing Kalimantan for days, making the usually blue sky of Balikpapan gray. Gray sky that reminds me so much of the cursed polluted sky of Jakarta.

It gives me headache simply thinking about it.

Indonesia is country marred in disasters.

Lord of The Small House

2009-09-30T07:11:00.004+07:00

2 years ago, when I left this blog to mess around in Multiply and then Facebook, there was nothing, nothing, that could trigger something on my mind to purchase a house of my own.

But all was changed when I got a much, much better job from what I had that time. Three times the salary and in a city where there are malls but the traffic is not as horrendous as Jakarta. So I then moved to Balikpapan, where the air is clean and the beach is close to home and the traffic is not as killing as Jakarta.

I stayed for a month on a hotel first, courtesy of my new company. Then I moved to a rented room from June to August, then moved to rent a room on my auntie's home.
Come February, I met with a girl. A daughter of my father's friend's sister. An angel wrapped in a beautiful, tall, and slim body. I fell in love instantly.

I then visited her in her home in May, 2009. Got asked by her uncle, the leader of her larger family from her mother side, whether I am serious with her or not.

I said I do. So he asked me to propose.

A month later, I proposed. Got accepted by her large family.

Later that month, almost suicidally, I bought a house. A small house, two stories with two bedroom and a small bathroom. 75 meter square of building area and 140 meter square of land area.

September 2009, I moved out from my auntie's house and moved to this house.

My own house. It feels great. My own house! Finally!

After almost 30 years living in provided-by-company houses or parent's houses or rented rooms or relatives houses, having your own house is an enlightening experience.

Enlightening, because you need to quickly adapt and learn all there is about having your own house.

Such as:
Where are the furnitures? Oh...I need to buy them.
What the hell happening with the water? Oh, I need to call the fix-it guys.
What the hell is that noise? Oh, it's the sound of the gypsum reacting to the air conditioner's cold.
Why are the grasses so tall? Oh, I need to cut it off.

So much I.

Well, living in a house of my own on my own, I will have so many things I need to do by myself.

Thanksfully, I chose to buy a house in a housing complex that already matured and have shopping distric nearby. In that shopping district, there is a 24 hrs supermarket so I can just grab my motorcycle and drive there in the middle of the night if I need to. But then again, I don't need to since that place also have delivery service for items I need. So I simply need to call them and have the items delivered.

While I wash my clothes.

Remember that I need to buy my own furnitures? That apply to household appliances too! I have bought the fridge, the gas stoves, the water dispensers, the rice cooker, the iron,but I am yet to buy a washing machine. So I still wash my clothes by hand.

And hung them on my Manfrotto 682B self-standing monopod, one end on the window frame and the other end on the top of my plastic wardrobe. I was going to let the air conditioner dry them up, but I realized that would probably put humidity on my air conditioner faster and could have mold grown on them. So I simply opened the window.

Oh well. Need to wait if they are dry when I got home. That'd be the time when I wash the other clothes and then Iron the ones that are dry.

It's good to be the Lord of Your Own House :)

Paranoid Singapore

2007-04-09T03:19:00.000+07:00

Be careful at Changi.

I got this email from a friend's multipy who got it from a satrioarismunandar@yahoo.com

Apologies if you've read this email.

Regards
--
Eko Prasetyo

A FAMILY HOLIDAY RUINED BY ILLOGICAL SECURITY OFFICERS

Dear Mr. Foo,

My name is Sandra Tan (I/C number 7328669G). It is with great disappointment and distress that I am filing a complaint to you with regards to my situation.

My family (including myself, my husband, my daughter, and my son) planned a Darwin holiday for the March school vacation period and was supposed to depart on 09 March. Unfortunately, we were put in a situation by the security officers at the departure terminal, that was way beyond our control and we were not able to make our trip. The following is an account of what had happened: -

I entered the Immigration gantry at about 7.15pm with my daughter (Belle Lee, 13 yrs old) to have our passport scanned and our hand carry luggage checked whilst my husband (Lee Ming Chong) stayed behind with my son (Caius Lee, 8 yrs old) at the ticketing counter to sort out my son's visa.

After having mine and my Belle's passport scanned, we proceed to the security gantry to have our hand luggage and our bodies scanned. Belle passed the security gantry first, whilst I followed right behind her. A lady officer asked me to remove my boots for scanning, and I did as told immediately and put my boots inside the basket provided, for it to be scanned together with my hand luggage.

I then proceed to the metal detector of which I cleared without the gantry beeping or detecting any metal objects. I was then asked to collect my luggage and my boots. In the mean time, Belle was throwing away a sweet wrapper and retuning to me and saw me putting on my boots.

Belle then asked casually "Mummy, why do you have to remove your shoes?"

Whilst putting on my boots, I replied her and said that "they (the security officers) are afraid that we might keep bombs in our shoes (which is why I need to take it off to have it scanned)"

Immediately, a security officer standing at the conveyor belt (Stephen S Naidira) who was standing in front of me said with a very rude tone "repeat what you just said". I clarified with him what he meant - is it for me to repeat what I had told my daughter? He said loudly again, to repeat what I had just said. So I did exactly what he told me. I said to him that "my daughter asked me why I need to take off my shoes, and I told her that you guys (the security officers) are afraid that we will keep bombs in our shoes."

He immediately asked me to stand aside and said that he had to report it to his superior that I said the word "bomb" twice. Then an Indian lady (Sivamalar) at the customs started hurling at me and my daughter and said that I said the word "bomb" twice and it is against the law and I can be sent to jail and they are calling the police.

She (Sivamalar) was so loud and rude and she shoved us to the side, and refused to listen to my explanation. In fact, she got so aggressive that another officer Ricky Lim (I guess it's her supervisor) had to come forward to stop her from further attacking me and my daughter verbally, and specifically asked Sivamalar to "shut up". I told Ricky Lim that I would like to know the names of his staff because their attitude and rudeness were simply beyond any acceptable level.

Immediately Sivamalar got so angry and aggressive that she started charging at Ricky Lim and hurled "What?! What?! What?! She (she meant me) said the word "Bomb" twice, so what is wrong with arresting her (which is me) and we were told that if we heard the word twice, we will arrest!!"

At that time, Stephen S Naidira came to me again to intimidate me further by asking me to repeat what I said earlier to my daughter again. I refused to repeat again then because I believe he was deliberately asking me to repeat so that he can count the number of times that I mentioned the word "bomb".

I also believe that that the officers were deliberately provoking me by being rude and intimidating, in the hope that I will retaliate in kind, thereby making their unreasonable actions justifiable.

Despite my anger and the fact that my daughter was scared to tears by the situation, I knew I had to keep my cool. I sat aside with my daughter taking down names of the personnel involved on my mobile phone. I was told to wait for another officer of a higher rank to decide on the matter, and I was still hoping whoever the higher ranked officer that was coming will have the logical thinking to acknowledge that what I had said to my daughter was a simple, harmless private conversation taken completely out-of-context.

At about 7.30pm, the Sergeant-in- charge, Amran Buang came. After I explained the full context of the incident to him, he refused to make a decision and decided to escalate it further to the Auxiliary Police and State Police. He said that the word "bomb" is very sensitive and I should not have mentioned it twice.

I explained to him that I did not know saying the word "bomb" is against the law, and I further explained that I did not say the word "bomb" in a threatening context to the officer, the word "bomb" was taken completely out of context as part of an answer to my daughter's question.

Despite my explanation, he said he cannot make the decision and my case has to be escalated to higher authorities.

Meanwhile, at about 7.40pm, my son's visa cleared and my husband and my son came in through the customs. After knowing what had happened, my husband tried to talk to Sergeant Amran Buang, further explaining to him that we are just a family going on holiday and what I have said to my daughter had been taken out of context. Again, no one was bothered to listen.

And again, we were told to wait for another officer with an even higher ranking. With time ticking away and at 7.55pm with no sign of the higher authorities appearing, we knew then our hope of boarding our flight had diminished.

Whilst waiting, Stephen S Naidira (the security officer) gathered with a few security officers at the side, including Sivamalar to discuss how they should present their statement to the police when they arrive later to make sure that they are adequately covered, and that they are just following the rule and doing what they were told to do. They said by insisting that they are taking actions "by-the- book", they would be ok.

I hope by now you have a clear picture of the situation. My kids were both crying then, with more and more policemen arriving which scared the living daylights of them, and with no hope to continue our holiday plans.

I believe every action inside the terminal is recorded and I would insist that your review the CCTV recordings on that night to know that I am only stating the truth without exaggeration. You can also see that during the entire episode, I was not at any point defiant or rude or refused any further check by the officers, despite the infuriating situation that me and my family were put through.

I know it is important to stay vigilant to protect Singapore. I have young children, I know how important it is, which is why I complied without complaining when I had to remove my boots for scanning. However, here is an obvious case of the security officers trying to get away with their rudeness and aggressiveness by taking things way beyond what was necessary, in the name of following the security protocol.

They were really angry when I asked for their names from Mr. Ricky Lim, and they knew very well then that they can abuse their power to make things very difficult for me and my family.

At around 8.05pm, we were informed by the Tiger Airways personnel that the plane will have to depart and they will off-load our luggage from the plane. At around 8.10 p.m., the State Police and other policemen arrived to take our statement.

In the entire episode, the State Police and the SWISS PORT personnel were the only ones who conducted themselves professionally and offered us consolation and meaningful advice. They have also at some stages expressed their personal views that they acknowledged this incident was gravely mis-handled on the part of the security officers.

The State Police further confirmed that there is no case against us, and they would just need to complete the paperwork.

The Budget Terminal manager came to meet me and said that whilst he empathized with our situation, it is an airport security protocol and frankly, it's "just too bad" that this happened to us.

My statement and my daughter's statement only completed at about 10.45p.m. The counter service staff, Ms Nur Aisah Bte Ali Hassan was very helpful and advised us on our next steps. She was kind enough to ask us to return the next day to change the traveling dates and advised the additional charges involved.

I am not given a report for this case, but my case number with the State Police is P/20070309/0015. I was already told by the State Police that the case is closed without further action.

For the ordeal that my family had been put through, I would want an official reply from CAAS and all relevant authorities addressing the following:

-Whether the security officers were trained to handle passengers with such bad attitude and rudeness and if such actions by them are condoned by authorities. I would insist you to refer to the CCTV recordings during the period of the incident.

What actions would be taken by CAAS and all relevant authorities with reference to both the security officers, Mr. Stephen S Naidira ad Ms. Sivamalar, for their unruly behavior and attitude? Surely, characters as such do not belong to a national airport that aspired to be a world class traveling hub.

What actions would be taken by CAAS and all relevant authorities with reference to Sergeant Amran Buang, who had the authority to end this episode promptly, but instead decided to prolong our ordeal for no justifiable cause?

Is it a protocol that even after establishing the facts that we, as a family poses no security threat, there is still a need to escalate the matter to the authority and have the State Police and other policemen carry out a full investigations only to end up in vain?

Why is it that even at level of Sergeant, whom I reckon is better educated, experienced, and able to make logical sense of the whole situation, refuse to make a simple decision and end our ordeal quickly? Is this a Singapore civil service practice where decision making is pushed and shoved from one level to another no matter how obvious what the final decision should be from the very beginning?

Whether all the officers concern are properly trained and competent to handle such situation. Besides hardware (i.e. the protocol book), are they taught to apply the software (i.e. common senses)?

Is it really a protocol that as long as the word "bomb" is mentioned twice by a person (once being asked to repeat by the officer)??Then no matter what context, tone, situation and profile of the person who said it, it would not be taken into consideration?

What if my daughter instead of asking me a simple question about my shoes, decided to say: "mummy, according to news report, there are speculations that the recent Indonesian air crash may be attributed to a bomb inside the plane." Would your security officer would come up to her and ask her to repeat one more time, and she would be put under arrest?

Your staff kept telling me that saying the word "bomb" in the airport is illegal and I can go to jail. They quoted newspaper examples of how people have gone to jail because of that.

I think your staffs need to be trained to understand and differentiate situations and circumstances. As far as I knew, the people that went to jail had VERBALLY THREATENED staff members in the aviation service or had DELIBERATELY caused public alarm using sensitive words.

My case was clearly none of the above. Even if, I am saying if, indeed its illegal to mention the word "bomb" in the airport no matter what context, the person involved need to be warned ahead of time. You cannot arrest a person for committing something illegal when the person has no idea that the word is illegal in the first place.

Your staff could have given me a verbal warning to say that such sensitive words should be refrained in the airport and I would have walk away remembering the warning. But instead, they decide to let the matter escalate further.

Who is to compensate for the expenses that are already incurred and forfeited for this trip, and our emotional stress and duress during the entire episode?

The total cost incurred, including air tickets, accommodation, and land tours amount to about $4,200. We had to put up with hours of humiliation with more than twenty policemen and officials surrounding us, questioning us, checking our luggage through and through.

We had put up with never-ending questioning from different departments, and best of all, repeated checks on my same pair of boots. My kids were terrified, puzzled, disappointed and exhausted from this entire ordeal.

My husband and I are left with one week of applied leave and no vacation and holiday to look forward to.

I would like to state that not everyone that we came across in this episode had been unpleasant. I wish to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the empathy shown by the State Police and the SWISS PORT personnel.

I will be waiting for your reply. Please let me know when to expect it in email. In the mean time, I may seek legal advice for my rights and entitlement in this incident.

Yours sincerely

Sandra Tan Hong Lian I/C: S7328669G Blk 148, Tampines Ave. 5 #04-284, Singapore 521148 Mobile: 81236990

Canon Powershot TX1

2007-03-07T18:58:00.000+07:00

I am a sucker for Canon's Digicam, so the moment I saw this baby, I am instantly in love!! Man, 10x zoom (!) digital camera that can do hi-res movie and sized nothing like its bulky 10x zoom brethrens! Gotta have this one! But first, another Canon, but this time Canon Pixma MP800!

End of Suckness, Start of Fuckness

2007-03-01T20:54:00.000+07:00

Pardon my language, but that's how I feel right now. You see, it was three fucking weeks offshore and cut off from all nice vista of big metropolitan, and what did I get when I got home? So so appraisal from supervisor, no off-days given, and my home PC is unable to be booted up.

I wonder what have I done to deserve this?

Or is this simply a warning signs for me to get out from my old life and get a new life? Yeah...that's probably is....

The next question, what will the next life be for a lost boy? Next life that won't be sucky?

OWN THE INTERNET

2007-02-28T20:07:00.000+07:00

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Kurau Field Trip - Pig Valentine - Week 2

2007-02-20T19:35:00.000+07:00

Today is day 14, and tomorrow is day 15.
And tomorrow i won't be coming home.

Geh.

You see, I have ranted here and there again about the perilous and ubiquotious uncertainty. And I have ranted here and there about the annoying and forever threatening field trip extension. And I have complained about how the mix of two can ruin a young, creative, full of imagination young man's life.

And for this Pig Valentine week, those mix are served to me on daily basis.

And here I am, gaining age and losing my allocation on earth with anticipations.

Darn it.

US$ 40 Comic Book

2007-02-18T10:38:00.000+07:00

Will you buy a US$ 40 Comic Book?

No?

What about if I say the comic is full colour? Hmm?

Still not convinced?

What about if I say it has 180 pages, all full colour? Still having doubt?

What about if I say those 180 pages are free from advertising? NO ADS WHATSOEVER !

Come on! 180 full color pages for US$40! It's a bargain!

Still not convinced?

I'LL SHOW YOU !!

Kurau Field Trip - Pig Valentine - Week 1

2007-02-13T11:12:00.000+07:00

Well, nice to know that you can have a storm in the beginning and peaceful, relaxing weather later.After three days of balancing between the oh-so-veteran-and-experienced-vendor-representative's wish to come home by saturday morning and the needs to have sucessful well stimulation injection program, which induced a lot of neuron storm on my head, things finally gets to slow down afterward.

Those three days are the most brain-criplling days I have ever been in any field. They were so crippling, I almost lost a very important item: communication radio. Man, if I ever lost one of those, I can guarantee you that I will no longer have Kurau Field Trip entry on this blog.

But, well, it's over. After that, my last big job is pumping liquids into two wells, and that only spent less than 12 hours. And now, I am relaxed, waiting for the next dynamites to explode.

See ya !

Jakarta Banjir Jam 2007

2007-02-05T11:44:00.001+07:00

Jakarta, February 2th, 2007, under a day that would have its night filled with full moon light, another Banjir Jam hits the great capital of Indonesia.

This is my photographic journal of what happened around my life on that fateful day and the water filled days afterward.

This journal starts at me coming home from the office, and ends at saturday night when the water level endangered my living spaces.

As of Sunday and Monday, the water has been subsiding, but the threat is still lingering.

This is First Quarter of a year, days of heavy rain and uncontrollable flux of flood.

Anyway, Banjir = Flood.

Flood City

2007-02-02T13:37:00.001+07:00

It’s Jakarta, and it’s flooded again.

And I’m thinking that this recurring phenomenon (it happens every year) is the physical manifestation of accumulated negativities that have been plaguing the city.

The said negativities? Weakening of laws, bad city planning, chaotic municipal waste managements, inefficient traffic managements, and unchecked growth of fossil-fueled vehicles.

How come? Well, Jakarta has inadequate waste-water drainage, almost no water recycling plant, nonexistent river maintenance management, increasing number of concrete building, diminishing number of trees and open grass spaces, and profiferations of structures that have deep foundations.

Those are nothing compared to forgetful, short-sighted, and idiotic quality of the municipal government. The flood has been recurring each year, for perhaps 3 decades.

Those greedy leeches even think of it as necessary traditions, hoping that some money – that they will surely be suck dry - will pour for the flood handling.

Suck to be Jakarta resident, especially in first quarter of any year.

To That Day

2007-01-31T13:30:00.001+07:00

In a solitary night, when the cold wind blows the window,

I want to warm my frozen heart,

By replaying that summer.

Playing at the beach, you were enjoying it!

The video of memories of we two,

I am watching alone.

While you were a little shy,

you whispered 'I love you'

Your face of liar was blurred

with the color of tears

You make me painful! Sorry to be like this

But even now I am reserving my feelings.

If everything about us is inside this light

Can I still rewind to that day?

Both my hands full of memories I had believed

I count and count them,

But I can't surpass my little finger.

Be at my side, tell me it's not true

And embrace my heart.

If everything about us has completely vanished

Right now, I want to rewind to that day

You make me painful! Sorry to be like this

Even now I am reserving my feelings.

If everything about us has completely vanished

Right now I want to rewind to that day

(translated from Ano Hi Ni, a song sung by Kimura Maki. This song is also ending song for Video Girl Ai anime series)

Original lyrics:

Tsumetai kaze ga mado o nagasu no samishii yoru

Kogoeru mune atatametakute

Ripurei ano natsu o

Namiuchigiwa de odokeru anata tanoshisou yo

Hutari dake no omoide no bideo

Hitori de nagamete iru no

Sukoshi terenagara suki da yo to

Tsubuyaiteru

Usotsuki no anata no kao namida iro de

Nijindeku

Anata setsunai yo gomen ne konna ni

Ima mo omoi wo nokoshiteru

Hutari no subete wa kono hikari no naka naraba

Mada maki-modoseru no ano hi ni

Ryoute ippai no omoide o shinjite ita

Kurikaeshite kazoeru kedo

Koyubi kara susumenai no

Anata soba ni ite soshite uso da yo to

Itte kokoro wo dakishimete

Hutari no subete ga kiete shimau nara

Ima sugu ni maki modoshitai ano hi ni

Anata setsunai yo gomen ne konna ni

Ima mo omoi wo nokoshiteru

Hutari no subete ga kiete shimau nara

Ima sugu ni maki modoshitai ano hi ni

It’s borderline miracle that I am inspired to search for this song after I heard its wonderful and signature opening sequence being used as someone’s cellphone’s ringtone.

This is one of the first j-pop song I heard back then at 1998 when I joint UKJ, and have captured my heart ever since because of its singer melancholic way of singing this soft song.

A Day in January

2007-01-30T09:11:00.000+07:00

It feels like a normal day in January. Woke up with sore throat and runny nose, and slight neural discoordination, but two glasses of filtered-ozonized-water done nicely to fully wake me up and pump the blood. It’s 3.30 am, and its time for Isya and Tahajjud prayers. Urinated, washed the bird, and poured out some Wudhu. Cold water splashed my face and limbs, giving my skin some neural impulses and activate more segments of my brain. Then came the prayers, the ways for more meditatation, blood pumping, and brain segments activation (try Moslem’s prayers if you think Buddhist meditations and all that yoga craps waste too much of your time. It took less than 10 minutes and it’s definitely not using crazy discontortioning moves).

And I went to sleep again. Darn stubborn bacteria !!

15 to 5, I woke up. Slightly refreshed. I could feel my immunity system were fighting off those nasty and sneaky bacteria who got the best of me when that darn mutating influenza virus were attacking me last week. Felt the sore throat again. Coughed some nasty coughs and spit out some viscous, greenish mucus out. Good. Those white cells had been doing their best.

15 minutes were the only time I had to open Opera 9.10 and read those offline instant messages. Not enough, but oh, time is so limited. So I unplugged Toshi and put her into my backpack.

Next came the breakfast. Rice, chicken soup, and one piece of boiled egg. Enough protein to keep my white cells coming. Drink two more glasses of water.

Well, what happened next is routine. What comes in must comes out and some dead skin cells washing.

Then the clothing on and shoes putting and stuff pocketing.

Then off I went, chasing Metromini S62 and having another long hour sitting on plastic bench and breathing some smog. Then I dropped myself off on a bus stop and took Metromini S640 and still able to have a seat.

Then I dropped at another bus stop and walked some good walk to Wisma Mulia. Past through the glass automatic door and got my bag checked by that bipping flat bat. It both went green and red at the same time. Oh well, whatever, It’s just a routine derived by fear for made-believe terrorists.

Took the elevator to floor 31 without going to floor 4, 14, and 24 (Chinese superstitions…go figure), greeted the security/receptionist guy, and went to greet the urinoir (those white cells have been moving actively, forcing blood to flow to my kidney faster and thus the visit).

Then went to my chair, greeted everybody, and then seated and opened my bag.

There was Toshi, but her umbilical chord is missing. Darn, I forgot to unplug the metal and plastic chord. Time to do some diplomacy.

Got the umbilical chord from a friend. Burn some zipped comics to two DVDs.

Got call from John saying that he brought over the comic which’s cover I colored and ready to hand it to me. So I went down to the main lobby and greeted him and took the comic.

And so my life went on.

Lost In Translation

2007-01-23T12:55:00.000+07:00

A few years ago, Prime Minister Mori was given some Basic English conversation training before he visits Washington and meets president Bill Clinton...

The instructor told Mori "Prime Minister, when you shake hand with President Clinton, please
say 'how are you'. Then Mr. Clinton should say," I'm fine, and you?" Now you should say ' me too'. Afterwards we, translators, will do all the work for you."

It looks quite simple, but the truth is...

When Mori met Clinton , he mistakenly said "Who Are You?" instead of "How are you".

Mr. Clinton was a bit shocked but still managed to react with humor: "Well, I'm Hilary's
husband, ha-ha...."

Then Mori replied "Me too, ha-ha..." Then there was a long silence in the meeting room....

I think my country needs to be nuked and then stripped from military so that it can be as advanced as Land of Rising Sun now.

Oh yeah, then strip all English lessons in schools and invade a neighbouring asian country….oh well, Singapore will do !!