Monthly Archives: September 2013

Adventure!!

Avn went on an adventure trail today!!!
Alright perhaps not entirely adventure trail, it’s just a walk ard the neighbourhood, knowing more about the surroundings and what’s available.

Foot Massage~

Vegetables ready for restaurants to bring me and cook~

Vegetarian shops~

Wah, SG Bak Kut Teh & Eggless cakes

Lao Fu Zhi also want to join in.

Vietnam Pho!!!

and all the way to the other end,

I felt good after that, bcos having known the surroundings a little more, it feels comforting, makes it easier to settle in..

Anyway,

And finally the blue gate that leads to wonderland… 🙂

Thanks for coming by

Be Bless
Love,
Amanda

Odd House

Leave a reply

There’s this particular house that attracts loads of crowd. I pass by it whenever I’m on my way to pick up groceries.

I wonder what is happening inside, what are people waiting for?
Doctor?
Bommok?
If its doctor what kind of doctor?

What do you think?

Thanks for coming by

Be Bless
Love,
Amanda

Central Park Mall

Leave a reply

Was on my way back from school when I got hijacked!!!!
In a good way obviously. 😀

My colleagues took me along to go visit Central Park Mall!
Yet another huge ass mall, not that I manage to walk around much really. Our objective was to go get food, as there were lessons the next day we didn’t stay long.

So anyway, we got on TransJakarta! Yet another new experience.

My colleague had this map thing that was supposedly taken off the poster I guess, funny that we couldn’t locate the exact station we got off on it.

Oh, and they sell stuff along the bridge. 🙂

A couple of shots:

The company was great. We talked we laugh, one of them teased and was mean but it was all for good joy and laughter.

The best find was:

TaDa!!! Bakerzin!!! And it’s at level 1 open space area. You know what that means. It will be so zen when someone visits and we spend time there. *bliss* and the little joy. Can’t wait for someone to come over.

Anyway 🙂

Thanks for coming by

Be Bless
Love,
Amanda

Value

Leave a reply

What is 20cents to you?

In Singapore, 20cents can buy…
5 candies,
hmm…
Probably pencils.
Erasers

Negligible isnt it?

But well, 20cents coin is useful when we pay for stuff thats like $5.20, $3.20 and so on.
We understood the value of 20cents
and definitely would pick up the 20cents thats on the floor should be stumble upon on.

What about 1cent then? If it still is going around.

Whats the point of this entry really?

See that coin sitting in my pencil case?

200 rupiah. Thats almost equivalent to 2cents in Singapore.

But guess what, it was used to throw at someone, picked up by another, studied and then discarded like it was a useless piece of … metal object.

Good Lord….
You know whats the best part? They dont give a crap about it.

Nope, not at all.

I dont know is it bcos thats how they are brought up?
Or is it because of the currency in that country?

Taxi drivers, Starbucks cashiers and some cashiers doesnt really dispense these coins. Like you have to ask for it………

But doesnt many adds up to much?

Probably its a matter of value and sense ba.

I questioned them, can we not buy anything with it?
They answered “1 candy” with so much glee, as though proving the point that it is indeed worthless.

So I was chatting with a banker and he concluded that its not a problem of the currency, it’s the problem of upbringing.

Was on my way back from a grocery trip when a thought came to me.
Yar… Actually you know what, looking at the state, the poor and the rich,
I realize that the currency needs to be like that, the small must be really really small, bcos there are the really really rich and the really really poor.
So the currency has to be able to be stretched to that extend in order to meet that cost of living.

That same 200rupiah definitely means a whole world of difference btw the rich and the poor here.

In SG where the standards and cost of living is high and the gap of poor and rich isn’t exactly big, then currency can be that way.

Noting that the landmass and demographic profile of SG and Indonesia is really different.

Interesting thought..

On the side note, this entry on Smith’s is funny: “Worst Super Hero EVER!”

Go get cracked up. 😀

thanks for coming by

Be Bless
Love,
Amanda

City Resort Apartment

Leave a reply

Went by to my colleague’s place for a movie night, so nice of him to open up his place to us. 🙂 sure helps the new me to adjust.

And you know what… I was so whinny. 😀
Because…

They have food stalls and lots and lots of convenience stalls and what nots at the surroundings!!!!!

and the blocks and set up feels so much like SG.
and majority that lives there, the Indon residences are Chinese!!!!!!!

*Zua Kuang!!!
I’ll be like so much more adjusted if I’m there. :/

But, I still appreciate my room, just need to introduce a fan and I think it will be so much better.

And well, in as much as I don’t have as fantastic food stalls downstairs, it sure helps me to keep my figure the last I check. 😀

Muahahahaha!
Go google City Resort Apartment Jakarta for more info 😉

thanks for coming by

Be Bless
Love,
Amanda

2nd Sunday

Leave a reply

It’s a Sunday!!!
My first Sunday alone.. 🙁
At least last week I have iris who came by to visit
Thank you iris!!

But anyway, 🙂
Sunday, both doors open, let the air flow through legs stretched and blogging. 😀

I missed blogging, or at least the way I used to blog, with the photo flood, adrenaline,
Can’t quite do that now as the speed is unsatisfactory and I could have done much things else while waiting.

Anyway, doesn’t stop me, cos I realize, blogging keeps me mentally sound. Seriously.. Like the release of ideas. Getting thoughts out. Knowing that I have people reading the blog. And even if they didn’t understand about enough, they are still here and hopefully it does enrich them.

So while others suggested for me to go visit places and you know distract myself, I realize, I’m really not the adventure and go big time, site seeing person anymore.
Or at least I got through that and am not super excited about that.

I prefer the cafe, tea, look out the window, listening to other people’s life experiences kind of person.
That keeps me going. That makes me feel happy.

There used to be a time when I asked myself why am I not with the crowd that’s staying out late into the night talking crap, laughing at random chats and I now understood why not.
Cos I am not like that.
And there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.
I am just me.

The one that takes care of myself, that I sleep enough, that I know what matters to me, that does not have to conform.

But of course, I do sweat and work out. I do watch my diet, I am still very aware of myself as a complete person. 🙂 I am still healthy, I am still,

Me.

🙂

Thanks for coming by

Be Bless
Love,
Amanda

Mini Bus

Leave a reply

I took their mini bus today!!!!!!!!!!
*excited!!!

Okay, just for the new experience lar huh,
It’s like the cheaper form of traveling here,
That short distance I travelled..
You know what, taking a cab is 10times more expensive than the bus!!!!!!!!
It’s like 2dollars vs 20cents

And so you get the tired face, the man smoking in cabin and of course, looks on people’s face that goes kinda “wats this expat doing on the bus.” “Wait, is she an expat or is she a local Chinese?”

😀

Featuring… The tired faces!!!
😀

Okay, shots inside the bus

Shot of the bus

and my colleague from the Philippines Ms Carla

And yours truly. 🙂

Thanks for coming by

Be Bless
Love,
Amanda

Relocate?

Leave a reply

So PM Lee was saying what’s stopping SG people from progressing is the people’s reluctance to relocate.

I know why..
cos I’m kinda experiencing it. 😀
Alright, maybe not it’s entirety, but rather living and working alone overseas.

Hmm.. I wonder how it is if its the whole family..
So the husband gets busy bringing the bread home at work,
Parents try really hard to get their children into a good school (good is really subjective isn’t it?)
The wife, is she versatile enough to handle the situation?
Where to go get groceries besides malls and hypermarket? There’s no more convenience stall downstairs, or a quick hawker bite you can get (at least at where I stay). What about work? Her ambition, how she was? if she chose to be a housewife, can she handle the home-maker life?
Will she morph to become the typical TaiTai of that country?
How??

A well, that’s the beauty of humanity, the ability to survive, the ability to want to want to survive.

Thankfully for me,
Got a colleague who took me to the nearby “Shop and Save”. (Yippie! I can get apples!)
(but as she suggested, “far” or “near” is subjective. 😀 its a 20min walk to the location by the way. 😀 and a wet market thats about twice the distance away.)
(which is like the exact opposite in my neighbourhood back in SG, wet market is less than 10mins away, that supermarket is about twice as far away — wet market is closer to me)

Took me on a small bus ride, which is like the small version of SBS n TIBS buses, (although they have that and even a lane for those buses)

And really after looking around at a couple of colleague’s place, I really think those problems are relative.

Yes, we don’t get the usual conveniences like do in SG, yes we don’t get the Internet speed and erm.. we are different, but I think after the initial, I might just be in love with the pace here.

I think a SG that is sick of the rat race would be very comfortable here.

BUT BUT, I still love my Singapore.
Where I belong, where I left my heart and soul.
And of course my mummy and daddy.

And my friends..

And my bakerzin..
And my fish soup noodles
And my..
Okay whatever they are replaceable.

I think ultimately, when one is debt-free, pocket full of cash, work on the right hand, shelter on the left hand, no strings attached, everywhere is good.

😉

Live and let live 🙂
Slowly slowly, sinking right in.

Thanks for coming by

Be Bless
Love,
Amanda

Internet

Leave a reply

Was doing the last bits of work when a colleague walked over and asked me to leave and go have a life.

Deep down inside I almost feel like crying. I have no life.
My life after 7pm is dinner in decent, atas restaurants, or movies, or a chilax time at the cafe drinking tea, “stoning” away.

Or alternatively, on high speed Internet access, under the facade of Facebook that displays the lives of my friends on a monitor screen.

Or maybe streaming playlist or chosen movies on YouTube.

Or maybe clicking through the channels on tv that keeps me up to date, or tuning in to radio that stream the latest songs on air.

I missed all that.

I realize this is how I live my life in the past when I took on the career of teaching. No life. Really, I go home straight after work and well, as though sole purpose of being alive is to shape children’s life.
and after fulfilling my obligations, taking up a new lifestyle, I understood why I came out.
Because even if no one taught me to live, I am really just a human, more selfish than that. 🙂 but anyway, it was bcos of a medical condition I left and I have since then recovered. A it’s all good.

While I’m kinda lost right now, I guess I’ll find meaning in this soon enough. 🙂

Thanks for coming by

Be Bless
Love,
Amanda

Rented Room

Leave a reply

I remembered I used to bunk over at my ex-bf rented house during one season back then. His was. A very comfortable 3 bedroom HDB, with the nice kitchen and living room. There are times when he and his fellow countryman would cook their hometown dish in the nice big kitchen.

I can’t do that *sob* *sob*
Big *sob*

Okay, actually I can, it’s just that the bed is 3 steps away and really the last thing I want is for my bed to smell like the kitchen.

I am more than capable to cook but no way am I going to handle that man.

Anyway, it’s a couple of days over. Started with a glorious day, everything happened within a week and I’m kinda overwhelmed. But that’s for me to know.

It feels like I’ve gone back to pre-Internet times, you know when h
Tv is the only entertainment and you call or SMS friends to remain in contact.
Or perhaps visit the playground or whatever waterhole to hangout.

Good Lord… ‘Cept that there ain’t no playground or waterhole here, and well, at times getting back to the room is one of the best thing. So anyway… I guess I’m already overwhelmed by the stimulation in the work place.

Anyway… I love my bed…

Thanks for coming by

Be Bless
Love,
Amanda