Only in Jakarta

During my stopover at Changi, I quickly called the concierge at Hotel Mulia to arrange for airport pickup. The guy on the other line took my hotel and flight details and gave me some specific instructions. After immigration and customs, go straight to the Golden Bird kiosk. Do not go anywhere else. Lots of people will try to talk to you, but ignore them. If I can't find the kiosk, I am to look for their airport representative, wearing a suit and a green(?) tie. Make sure he shows me his airport ID because there will be impostors wearing the same and pretend to be from Hotel Mulia. And if I go with them, they'll do bad things to me. Okay.

Upon touchdown, there's a mad rush for the immigration queues. Good thing I remembered that I'm supposed to get my visa-on-arrival first. Last time I was here, I was already lining up at immigration when somebody mentioned I need a visa. I had to go back and buy me a visa. So the guy at the visa counter asks me how long I'm here for. Five days. Doing what? I'm seriously tempted to say for holidays. My colleague mentioned that if you say you're on a business trip, they'll ask for company referral letters, you'll have to get a business visa, etc. But then, I don't look like a tourist. And I've seen enough Border Security and Border Patrol to be afraid of being sent back if I am caught lying. So I said I'm here for a training course. What training course, he persisted? I don't think he'll understand "FI Service Awareness", so I just gave him a vague answer. Back at the immigration, I had the same dilemma. But this time I have to lie because I've already put in holiday on the arrival card as reason for travel. Good thing the guy didn't ask. Whew!

So I go straight for the Golden Bird kiosk, and this guy guides me outside to the taxi queue. True enough, a guy followed us shoving a business card with the Chinese words for "Miss" printed in bold. No thanks, dude. My fiance reads this blog. Halfway through my taxi ride, I noticed that the meter is active and running. 100,000 rupiah already! I thought the pickup service is complimentary? By the time we got through the security bomb checks and into the hotel foyer, the meter's reading 200,000+ rupiah! Good thing the driver didn't ask me to pay. Whew!

Because I wouldn't be able to pay him. I'm only left with 10,000 rupiah from my previous trip. And how much is 10,000 rupiah? A$1.24! And I was just wondering beforehand if I should bring AUD because 10,000 rupiah seems a lot already. Hah! So I needed to get some money and quick. Concierge tells me that the nearest mall is Plaza Senayan, which is a few blocks away from the hotel. There's buses, but he recommends the taxi for foreigners like me. I have no money to pay for taxi, so I asked him how long to walk. 15 minutes. Let me tell you, the time or distance is not the problem. The problem is you're walking along a busy thoroughfare with no pedestrian lanes on the sides! I managed fine at first, then the cars keep edging closer and closer. I rushed over to the middle island where there's a patch of grass (and rubble) to walk on. Finally got to the section of Plaza Senayan, but I had to wait for about 5 minutes before I was able to make a mad dash to cross the road. The road was that busy.

First task at hand it to change some money. Normally, I would've checked out the rates of the money changers, but at this time of night, there's only one open. The quoted exchange rate is 10,275 rupiah to one USD. Fine. The guy looks at my $100 bill and says the rate is now 10,075 rupiah because my bill is from the old series and there's a small marking on the bill. Uh-huh, ok. I got him to change $50 only because this guy could be pulling my leg. Later, I went to Senayan City across the street to try my luck. Only one money changer open and it's the same one as in Plaza Senayan. Their rates are also the same. When I tried to change my new-series $50 bill, they gave me the same excuse. The guy explained that because my bill has some markings, it's considered flawed, and they have to give me a lower rate. Uh-huh, ok.

KrisWorld Movies

Set Off
Not worth the time to watch. This is getting typical of Chinese mainland movies. Weak male roles, strong streetsmart women, guy meets girl and they get to know each other better while trying to resolve a situation. Happy ending.
In this case we have this guy whose wife dumped him for his friend. His associate back in Cyprus is selling off the restaurant without his permission so he needs to rush back. On his way to the airport, this girl commandeers his taxi and his luggage and passport ends up locked away in her apartment unit. Meanwhile, some shady characters are after the girl because her no-good boyfriend stole a huge stash of dollar bills from his gangster pal. Turns out the bills are counterfeit. The bills, when arranged properly, actually contains a map of a secret tunnel underneath a museum. In the end, the bad guys are after the museum treasures. Confused yet? All you need to know is that the guy solves all of the girl's troubles, and they later became a couple.

Absurdistan
Should've steered away from this comedy film from Russia. Plot sounds interesting enough, but the movie's no good. You have these two childhood sweethearts living in a village where the only source of water is from a pipe running deep inside the mountains. They're now into their teens, and their raging hormones are telling them to do it. For some strange reason, the cute girl is holding back. They consult her astrologer-granny for an auspicious day, and she gives them one - 4 years in the future. According to granny, they're supposed to take a bath together the day before. The day comes and the water pipe has pretty much dried up. Smart guy diverts all remaining water into an improvised bath tank, and they have their bath. Before the guy can take her, she runs off and insists he fix the water problem permanently. Most of the movie shows the women going on strike - refusing to have sex with their husbands until they fix the water problem. The horny guy goes into the mountain caves with a spare pipe and manages to plug the underground reservoir, thus forcing the water upwards to their village. He (and all the other males of the village) are now happy campers.

Okuribito (Departures)
Won the 2009 Oscar award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year. Well-deserved, too. They don't make movies like these anymore. Slow and calm and simple and meaningful. Unemployed cellist Daigo becomes a nokanshi to support his wife. As a nokanshi, his job is to cleanse, dress, and make up corpses before they are finally placed in a coffin. Not a job to be proud off, and his wife leaves him when she found out. He stuck with the job and learns to like it, even if other people look down on him. In the end, his wife understands the value of his work and how it gives happiness to the grieving families.

Off to Jakarta

Happy Mother's Day. Note to self: All moms are the same. Some are passionate, some are cold, but no matter what happens, they always have your interests at heart. you many not know this now, but in time, you will.

WHQ dropped me off at the airport about 1.5 hours before departure. The Internet check-in queue is longer than normal. I guess more people are doing online check-in because it does save you a lot of time. I had the option of printing my own boarding passes, but a check with the lady at the counter confirms that this is not working at the moment. You can print them out, but they won't be accepted.

The trip to Singapore was pretty uneventful. Just a bit miffed that I chose to sit on the right instead of left. A few hours into the flight, the captain announced that to the left of the plane, you can see Ayers Rock. Bah!

Mother's Day Fireworks

Celebrated early Mother's Day at Hurricane's Grill Darling Harbour. We also wanted to watch Harbourlight, so we drove to the city early. Hurricane's Grill found us seats around 6pm, and told us we have to finish around 7pm. The food came to us around 6:30pm. Go figure. Strangely enough, we finished all our food (without hurrying) at 7:10pm. That give us just enough time to head down to Cockle Bay Wharf and find good spots for Harbourlight.

As part of Darling Harbour's 21st birthday celebration, there's fireworks at the wharf every Friday and Saturday night for the month of May. You also have a group of jetskis circling the waters with fireworks spewing at the back. Quite a good show.

Philippine Cultural Day at St. Marys

Never been to St. Marys before. I made it a point to check out the Philippine Cultural Day event because I was having visions a big stage showcasing Philiping song and dance numbers and stalls selling turon and fishball and pork barbeque (a la Aling Nene). Too bad it didn't materialize. There's a mini-park on a street corner, and that's where the even it being held. Got a good-sized crowd though. Had to drive down a block before we found parking space.

There's a couple of stalls promoting Philippine tourism. One stall selling pancit and palabok, another stall offering free Magnolia sorbetes (gold coin donation), and the last stall selling Filipino foodstuffs. On stage we have some folk dances, song numbers, then a fashion show displaying the country's national costume through the years. Strangely enought, we can't find any nearby Filipino restaurants. Drove to Rooty Hill, but can't find the Corregidor Filipino restaurant. We did see Kamayan and Little Quiapo, but they're more like takeaway shops. One of the storeowners was helpful enough to give us directions, so we eventually found ourselves having lunch at The Corregidor Entertainment Centre and Restaurant at 3pm. The place is more like a function hall. All spruced up for a concert dinner later in the evening. We had lechon kawali, sinigang, kaldereta and pancit - all of them very good.

Newington Armory

Visited Newington Armory area for the first time. Close to Olympic Park and Bicentennial Park, but not sure exactly where it is. It's a very nice place, I must say. The Blaxland Riverside Park has ample parking spaces with bike paths and fountains and BBQ facilities. There's the Armory Wharf Cafe with indoor and outdoor dining areas. There's the actual wharf with the cranes still standing. Bike hire is $15 per hour. Nearby is the Newington Armory, which used to be a naval depot. A few hundred meters away is Armory Gallery (Building 18). At 500sqm, the building is the largest single room gallery with uninterrupted wall space in Australia. It hosts ArtExpress, currently featuring Art of Darkness with works from 2008 HSC Visual Arts students.

2-for-1 at LG IMAX Theater

We knew Monsters vs Aliens 3D is a very popular movie, so we bought our tickets way in advance. An hour early to be exact. While waiting outside the theater, we saw people going in already. Might as well go in early and get some good seats, right? By the time we went in, the place is half-full. Some ads were being shown, a few trailers for upcoming movies. Then there's this long trailer for Under the Sea 3D. The trailer has been going on for more than half an hour already, so I jokingly told WHQ maybe we went to the wrong movie session. After the trailer, everyone started standing up and leaving the theater. Uh-oh, did we just watch the wrong movie. Well, we showed our tickets to the door lady and she didn't say anything. Anyway, we lined up again for the real show. We do have valid tickets, and if the door staff objects, we'll just buy new tickets. We got to the head of the queue. The guy didn't even look at our used tickets, and waved us in. Probably figured we came out to buy popcorn and drinks.

I found Monsters vs Aliens quite funny. Earth is having an alien problem, so General W. R. Monger brings out his collection of monsters (each sold separately) to fight them off. You've got Dr. Cockroach, blobby B.O.B, The Missing Link, Insectisaurus, and supersized Susan/Ginormica. Obviously, Susan is the main character here. Due to a freak chance encounter with a meteorite, she becomes a giant, and now her fiance doesn't want her anymore. Realizing that she's now big and strong (literally), she ditches her loser fiance, and goes on to become a full-time monster.

Photoshoot at The Rocks

Funny how things work out in the end. We're supposed to have this 9am photoshoot at The Rocks with Fotoexpression. As it is ANZAC Day, I thought of just parking in the office, then taking the bus through the city to Circular Quay. First, I woke up later than I wanted. On my way to WHQ's unit, I find Beamish Street blocked in preparation for the local ANZAC Day parade. I take to the small side streets, and even some of them are blocked. Then WHQ calls up asking if I can bring along a few of my shirts, so she can decide what to wear. That means I gotta go back home. By the time I got to her unit, her sister's still getting ready. We quickly drove to the city (within speed limits, of course), and got on the bus just in time.

Photoshoot went pretty well. The sun was out. There's a light breeze, but not too cold. I thought we were gonna take pictues with the Harbour Bridge as a backdrop, but apparently not. Right beside the Argyle Stores (corner of Argyle and Harrington Streets) is a quaint red phone booth. That's the starting point of the photo shoot. Moving up the road, more pictures outside the front door of Argyle Venues, then along sections of Cambridge Street, all the way to Susannah Place. The whole e-session took about an hour, and by then we're both tired from smiling and hugging and pretending to be models. :-)

Easter Wedding Rings

Went to Mt. Pritchard to attend an Easter party. Left early and went to the city because WHQ's sister has to attend a meeting there.

Since we're already in the vicinity, we dropped by Ricco Ricco to take a look at their wedding bands. Naturally, we looked for 18k white gold bands that matches WHQ's engagement ring. Each one costs from $700 to $1000. We selected a pair, and the manager is offering us something like 50% off. Either the manager really likes me, or the store is having a massive sale, or maybe this is just Marketing 101. He's even willing to throw in free engraving. Personally, I'd rather check out a few more shops to make sure the price is within range, but this guy is really pushy. So I took his best price, shaved off $50, and asked him if he could give me that price. He laughed out loud and said to me, "That's not how you negotiate." Anyway, he played around with his abacus, I mean, calculator, and we came to a middle ground. As I always say, ask and ye shall receive.

Went back to the unit to find that the phone line is still not working. Worse, even the DSL service is busted. It definitely was working before. Checked the phone box outside and found the cover lying on the ground. Someone definitely fiddled with the wires.

247tint

247tint.com is running a special on their car windows tinting services. The blurb goes "Any car, any darkness - $130!!!" Given that they normally charge $190 for sedans and $220 for wagons and 4WDs, that's a pretty good deal.

So I drop by 20 Consett Street around 8am for my appointment. Turns out it's a home business. No complaints about the work though. I left the car with Boyd, and by the time I came back at 11am (after McDonald's and Bunnings), it's all done.

Minnamurra Rainforest

For the long Easter break, the family decided to go to Minnamurra Rainforest, just west of Jamberoo. Been a while since the whole family went out on a trip. Stopped by Nan Tien Temple in Berkeley, Wollongong as the brother hasn't been there before. Took the Grand Pacific Drive through the Royal National Park to Stanwell Park through the Sea Cliff Bridge.

Today being a Christian holiday, I was confused to find so many people at Nan Tien Temple. The parking lots are almost full. Aside from the pagoda and the shrines, don't forget to visit the exhibition halls with paintings on display and the museum, which can be found inside the gift shop. After a hearty vegetarian meal at the dining hall, we proceeded to Minnamurra Reserve. From Princess Highway, take a right at Illawarra Highway, follow Terry Street, which become Jamberoo Road. Take a right at Jamberoo Mountain Road, then another right at Minnnamurra Falls Road.

Minnamurra Reserve is actually part of the Budderoo National Park. Vehicle entry fee is $11. Should've bought a truck next time. From the Visitor Centre, you start off with the Rainforest Loop Walk. It's 1.6kms and takes about an hour to complete. There's an elevated boardwalk that runs through the rainforest and a couple of suspension bridges here and there. Some sections of the wooden boardwalk have been replaced with specially designed non-slip ripple sole concrete pavers for better traction. To see the falls, you'll have to make a detour and take the 4.2km Falls Walk, which is another extra hour or so. The path is pretty steep and NOT recommended for people who get easily tired. At the end of the Falls Walk, you'll get to a viewing platform where you can enjoy the Minnamurra Falls. Worth the walk.

Birthday Surprise

Two hours into my birthday (read: 2am), I got a call from a colleague saying that the planned CPU upgrade didn't go too well. The CPU upgrade for one node went ok, but the other node got disconnected from the DB cluster. In the middle of our recovery, the whole thing just rebooted itself. Next, we started getting disk errors and read failures. A couple of volumes are in RESYNC mode. Looks like the sync process is gonna take more than 24 hours at the rate it's going. Not able to wait that long, we decided to fire up the application. Good thing everything came up properly.

Birthday dinner at Stir Crazy Thai at Erskinville. Food's all right, not as good as I was expecting. Service is quite good though. We brought along a cake, and the staff served it nicely with sparklers.

Franchising & Business Opportunities Expo

Got some free tickets to the Franchising & Business Opportunities Expo at Sydney Exhibition Centre. Attendance was pretty good. Must be the global economic crisis. In these uncertain times, people are on the lookout for plan B. Oven cleaning, lawn moving, blind/curtain cleaning, coffee shop, vending machines, bookkeeping, cookies and ice cream, fruit juices, muffins, etc.

Sydney Ute Hire

Moving day today. Instead of trying to cram the bed(s) and mattresses and cabinet into the Zafira and making multiple trips, we decided to just rent a ute. You can normally rent one from most petrol stations. The one across the villa is charging $40 for a minimum of two hours. We went with that because of proximity. You write down your personal details and put up a bond just in case something happens to the ute. The clerk brings you to the ute, shows you that the tank is full, and makes a round of inspection with you. And off you go.

I thought of asking the guy if he can reduce the time/fee. Good thing I didn't, as two hours is just right. Loading up the ute already took almost an hour, not to mention the unloading part. Then there's the travel time from the petrol station to home to unit and back to the station. I returned the key, and the guy asked if I had refilled the tank. I go, Huh? Do I have to? It's just a few kilometers. Anyway, I filled up the tank, and paid for a few dollars worth of petrol to make the guy happy.

House Wine

Discovered StripGenerator today. It's an online service and you use it to create comic strips. There are other comic-strip creators out there, like Bitstrips and stripcreator, but I like this one better. Simple and effective.

The Couch, the TV Stand, and the Not-So-TV Stand

Went to Parramatta to pick up the Freedom couch and the small TV stand. The couch was longer than I thought and the TV stand much heavier than I expected. Fortunately, we were able to cram the couch inside the Zafira. The frame was literally centimeters away from the headrest. No hard braking, please.

Had lunch at Se Joung (right outside Woolworths Campsie). Just the starters are enough to make me mildly full. The barbequed scotch fillet and chicken fillet are very good. Back at the unit, we set up the couch and TV stand we picked up earlier. Assembled the Besta TV stand, which is not going to be a TV stand.

Christening in Plumpton

Went to Plumpton for Lana's christening. WHQ is the official godmother, which makes me the unofficial godfather. The event is pretty low-key. Just the parents and Lana, the godparents (and their partners), and a couple of friends. And the officiating priest, of course.

Back at Ropes Crossing, the grandparents are still busy preparing the feast for the guests. I only sampled half of the foods on offer, and I got full already - fried spring rolls, crispy pata, fried chicken, fruit salad, puto, etc. Spend the rest of the afternoon talking with the hosts and watching Foxtel. People started leaving around 4pm, so we followed suit.

Dropped by Ikea to see what good stuff we could buy. Saw this nice walnut-effect Besta TV stand that WHQ liked. We won't be using it as a TV stand though. Since we're just a stone's throw from AS, we passed by Liberty Grove to give her a visit. Over fried spring rolls, we went through the musical program for the wedding and the married lives of some friends. It's true that marriage is not the answer. It's a question. And you'll probably find the rest of your life figuring out the answer. Some will think that they've learned their lesson, and that the second time around will be better. Maybe so, maybe not. Some might think that as long as the couple has a strong religious foundation, things will work themselves out in the long run. Maybe so, maybe not. As I always say, you never know a person until you've seen him/her angry.

Star City Trophies Lunch

Been a while since we went to Trophies Food Court for lunch. That's because it's been a while since GDG got a $50 voucher from Star City. He used to get a lot of vouchers from the establishment, but not anymore. Maybe he's not gambling as much.

We noticed that there's a promo ongoing called Cash Lab. Basically, you swipe your Total Rewards membership card at one of the promo kiosks to get a raffle ticket for the draw of the day. If you're lucky enough, you get an instant prize that you claim on stage. If you're feeling lucky, you can pull a lever for a chance to double your prize. My instant prize is a $10 free bet. A pull of the lever made it $20.

Today must be our lucky day. GDG forgot to bring his membership card, so the Trophies staff swiped her card when we placed our food order. Turns out the staff discount is 50%, so effectively we got all our food for half-price. We ordered BBQ pork, roast pork, fried pork chop noodle, Caesar's salad, Greek salad, spring rolls, and black forest cake for everyone. All for only $44 (at 50% off). We didn't even use up the voucher. Had to pack away the eight spring rolls because we're too full already.

Becoming One

Part two of the Becoming One marriage preparation course at St. Michael's Lane Cove. Unlike the Thursday night session which runs from 7pm to 10pm, this one's from 11am till 6pm. Lunch is not included. WHQ and I had to drive to the town centre to get our lunch.

Spent most of the day watching videos of real-life couples arguing, analyzing what they did wrong, and discussing how they can improve. Later in the afternoon, we had a lady talk to us about family planning, then a priest talk about the marriage sacrament.

Have to say I expected more from the course, considering the amount of money we paid, but it's not too bad. Learned a few important things on keeping a positive outlook, not jumping to conclusions, learning to empathize, focusing on the issue and not on the person, etc. Have to say I now know a lot more about birth control methods.