off I go ..

2 days counting down to my big 2 weeks holiday to Taiwan and HongKong .. the moment I've been waiting for the last couple of months. Though due to hectic working days, I haven't been able to pack my bag, I haven't planned what I'm gonna do or where I'm gonna go. Well, I have the brief idea of places I wanna go, but they are all just written down, haven't really decided which is when, etc ..

Now, I kinda relief that I choose to fly on Sunday instead of Saturday .. at least I can still prepare everything tomorrow and most importantly I still have a day off to relax rather than rushing the packing tonight .. PHEW!! Giving up the waiting list flight on Saturday turn out to be a good decision after all.

So anyway .. by 6:15pm Sunday, I'll be in Taipei .. visiting the city again after 22 years and by 4pm Monday

(22 Sept) I'll be in HK, seeing my aunties, cousins and the country after 16 years .. WOW!!

I'm going to Disneyland :)

While in the topic of holidaying .. few friends from work are also flying off for the First ever Formula 1 Night Race in Singapore end of this month ..

Check out the prestige ticket .. wow!!

Have fun girls ..

words of wisdom

I got this piece of wisdom from my mom's friend .. her daughter has just graduated from UI and accepted in Sampoerna (big cigarette company in Surabaya). Well cone Christina ... It's really beautiful word of wisdom, so thought it'd be nice to share with all of my friends ...

You cannot predict life, anything can happen anytime .. anywhere ..

So all you can do is just do the best you can do in everything you do in life and leave the rest to God

You have to accept everything with thankful feeling and you'll be happy

You can't change a person but you can change your attitude to suit with everyone

Don't hurt anyone's heart 'cause it only gives bad feelings to our heart

Always thing positive, treat people like what you want to be treated

Be brave to take a chance, you'll never know what will happen

It's worth it to take a risk because life is so short

Time always passes by without us noticing

Many things have happened when you realized that

But don't ever have a regret

leave the past, live for today, look forward for the future ... and you will move on

There will always be spectacles in your way but never give up, give it a try and

where there is a will there will always be a way

God, family and friends are important, never neglect them

Love them for what they are and they will love you for who you are

Love yourself, learn to know yourself, be happy for everything in you and that is you..

Love the nature

Believe in God, trust Him, be His hands on earth that will spread goodness, love and happiness

the "beauty" of public transportation

this was my old blog entry from friendster on 20 November 2006 ...

ok, before i even started, just notice the apostrophe on the title … you’ll get what i mean eventually …

so i just recently so-called join back of using the public transportation, because i can no longer stand the traffic, i got so fed up with everything, it ruins my mood in the morning — not only with the rapid increasing of vehicles, motorcycles, ‘pedagang asongan’ (people who selling their products car to car) plus the never-ending road constructions everywhere — flyovers, underpass, busway line, monorail, MRT — you named it, we’re gonna have it all soon enough but yeah it’s all being built at the same time. So anyway i decided to take the advantage of using the public transportation — here i don’t mean taxi, but more into down-to earth kind of transportation.

Ok i actually love taking public transportation … when i was studying in Australia, public transportation was my best solution of going anywhere … i loved riding the bus, because it’s cheaper, and you don’t have to worry about traffic, got lost because of making the wrong turn and difficulty in finding parking space. and it’s soo convinience .. it came every 1/2 hour or 1 hour the most .. the bus stop is normally in walking distance, so i love taking it. as well as i was travelling in other country, singapore for example … we are treated like king with the MRT, bus that comes every 15 mins or 1/2 hour.

Alrighty, back to the original topic … local public transportation is totally different from other country … yes, it’s cheaper and i don’t have to concentrate on the road much, i can just sit back and relax while listening to my ear pumping with my fave music. and most of all, i don’t have to worry about the traffic at all … i couldn’t agree more to it … but for those who don’t know, Jakarta’s .. well Indonesian public transportation is really one of the kind, something that you probably would never find any other places in the world, to name a few:

1. there is NO such thing as BUS STOP

2. we don’t pay to the driver nor swipe card to pay for the bus fare .. instead there is one person go around the bus asking for the money. if you’re lucky, you’ll get your change .. if not you just have to except the fact. so it’s better you prepare exact fare.

3. you can basically STOP the bus anywhere .. i mean anywhere, even you’re still across the street and even with the NO STOP sign and a policeman standing right in front of you, you can STOP the bus without any trouble. but the risk is you’ll be honked by every cars, sweared by the drivers and yelled at.

4. once you’re inside the bus, there is NO guarantee you’ll get a seat .. not only you’ll be standing — let’s say almost 2 hour of the travel time (i use my travel time as an example), you’ll also be squeezed in even that bus is practically FULLED.

5. there is no estimate time of when the bus will be coming .. so I actually waited for the bus for almost 1 hour today, wondering have i missed the bus or the bus just hasn’t arrived yet ..

6. and when your stop is there, you’ll be having trouble to just get out from the bus and eventually you’ll miss it anyway …

7. you have to extra carefull of your belongings and yourself (specially if you’re a woman) .. coz you’ll be facing up with thief and those "naughty" hands touching you "accidentally".

well, lots of people aren’t so lucky to have their own car, but i mean if the transportation is good and well-organized, what would people drive and get so stress out with the road?

so now you get what i meant by beauty here .. it’s actually NOT beautiful at all. let’s wait for what Sutiyoso has promised us .. a better and improved transportation and to reduce traffic here in Jakarta with the never-ending road construction.

that was my heart feeling blog almost 2 years ago, and I'm still feeling the same 'till now. There is NO change or a least improvement with the transportation. Sutiyoso (the former governor) is no longer in charge, Fauzi Bowo is the governor now, he who was during the election said he's gonna change the drainage system, fix the transportation problems -- all just BULL!! It was just another nonsense that those high rank people made to get the so-called "less educated" public to vote for him, at the end .. all of us suffer still.

2 nights ago, I waited 2 hours for the bus to get home. I was so fed up so I decided to take a cab home, 10 mins later, I saw the bus just right behind my bus!! Sigh!!!

Just another bad day .. I thought I'm getting use to with the uncertainty, but I guess I'm not, specially when you're amazingly exhausted after a long day at work, you just wanna go home and relax. It's hard to get that ..

admiration of a super star

Everyone knows that Lee Hom is my number 1 idol of all time, though I was pretty late in discovering him, but it's better late than never right? He's not only good looking but he is also talented, smart and everything you wish for in a guy .. in a person to be general. Who wouldn't like him? Even guys wish to be like him, at least have half of his brain, his attitude ... he is every girls' dream guy.

Even Jackie Chan -- an international super star both recognised in Asia and Hollywood, a world well know martial art artist has admiration to Lee Hom.

This is what Jackie had to say about Lee Hom in his blog (http://www.jackiechan.com/) during the Torch Relay in Sanya. Read all the praises he made on Lee Hom .. wow!! Amazing right?

"I was the 208th torch bearer for this leg of the Olympic flame relay. In the morning, I waited at the venue in preparation for the relay and ended up waiting for about five or six hours. I saw many friends at the event and I saw Leehom Wang again so while we were waiting, we sat down and had a chat together.

Leehom Wang is an artist that I admire very much because he is one very talented, gifted, and skillful person. I actually think the heavens above have been too good to him and haven’t been very fair with the rest of us! Why would I say something like that? Well, once you get to see what Leehom Wang looks like and watch him perform, I think you’ll understand why I said that. Let me try to describe a few things about him here. Starting with his appearance, he has the looks of a handsome and charming gentleman; as for his figure, he is tall, fit, and slim; about his talents, he knows how to compose songs, write lyrics, rearrange and edit songs, and also has a very nice voice so he sings really well; about his language skills, he knows how to speak fluent Mandarin and English, and he even knows how to speak a little Cantonese; about his musical skills, he knows how to play the piano, guitar, violin, and drums; about his physical abilities, he knows how to dance and perform Chinese kung fu. After reading my description of Leehom Wang, I think you might also be asking why the heavens have been so kind to him, gifting him with so many skills and talents. It’s like the love and affection from tens of thousands of Gods were all gathered together and put into his body. He’s an amazing guy (but I still think it’s not fair to the rest of us ha ha ha).

While I was getting prepared and waiting for event organizers to call me for the relay, I saw Leehom sitting to one side. He was making use of his spare time, composing a new song while he was waiting. He’s definitely one very hard-working artist. Since I had the chance, I started taking a few photos of him but before I could finish, someone called me to get ready for the relay, so I immediately put down my camera and quickly prepared for the run."

- pic taken by Jackie before he made for his run -

Even a big super star like Jackie has a huge admiration to him, what about us? A true down to earth role model.

taiwan here I come ..

My big trip for the year is just around the corner, it's gonna be the biggest trip I have since I started work. So far it's been just Singapore back and forth .. but now I'm taking 2 weeks holiday to Taiwan and HongKong. Well, it was initially meant for my "Return to Root" trip .. well, that didn't happen.

In exactly 2 weeks time from today, I'm gonna take off to Taiwan -- Taipei in particular and KaoShiung in planning. I'm gonna spend in total of 8 days in Taiwan and 6 days in HK. I'm so gonna have fun ... it was back in 1986 when I went to Taiwan and 1992 was the last time I went to HK. Both trips were family trip and since I was pretty young back then, I didn't remember much about it. This time I'm gonna explore ..

These are just some of the places I'm planning on going in Taiwan .. to name a few ..

- national museum -

- taipei 101 - (definitely)

- CKS memorial -

- Martyrs Shrine -

While in HK, I will surely go to Disneyland .. YEY!! and Macau, will try my luck on the machine in the Casino. When I went there in 1992, I wasn't allow to go in -- yeah I was too young of course. This time, here I go baby :D And hopefully will be seeing my uni friends and finally FAMILY REUNION, it's been WOW .. a long time since I saw my 2 cousins.

I'm gonna shop till to drop .. yey!! Can't wait ..