Archive for April, 2008
Math and Logic
Generally, the economy in this country is bad. When I first started the business I am in five years ago, all-purpose flour was IDR 75,000 / 25 kg sack. Today it stands at IDR 176,000 for the same weight. Medan is a small city, the cost of living is quite expensive and the wages are not as high as the capital city.
This is cause by the fact that most industries are concentrated in Java so food products and main necessities are far more expensive as the distribution cost is normally included into the price of goods.
This morning during breakfast, I saw a couple of wedding invitations from a staff working at my father’s. The cook made a remark “He just keeps on getting married!”. Then she said, he has already had three wives and now taking a new one.
For argument sake, I will put the religious affair aside - I have blogwalked enough to know that the issue will attract nasty comments and unnecessary judgements.
The Secret - Revealed and Unrevealed
I have not read the book. People I know are divided into two groups. One is those who think highly of the book and state that it is the best self-inspirational book ever written. The other group is those who deem the book quite worthless and full of BS.
Did a little bit of digging, this is the summary of the book by someone who has never read it.
The Secret is a self-help book based on the “Law of Attraction”. This law conveys how people’s feelings and thoughts attract real events in the world into their lives; from the workings of the cosmos to interactions among individuals in their physical, emotional and professional affairs. The book reveals testimonials of those who have “uncovered the Secret” in their lives.
Basically, the book and the law are repeating what people have been ignoring all this time. “Ask and you shall receive”. “You shape your universe as you go along”. The main criticism it gets so far is that it points out that victims are the authors of their own misfortunes.
I find it quite disturbing when this billboard showed up in town. It is a karaoke bar in one of the sleaziest buildings in town. I am sure, inside is full of “secret”. Should we sue them for copyright infringement or something?
Weekly Winners - Fruit Orchard
Temple on the Hill - Underconstruction
Orange Orchard
Mandarin Uncovered
Char Kwe Teo at 88
This old man is 88-years old and he has been selling char kwe teo for more than 50 years. Unlike others, he makes his own rice noodles with pure rice flour made from scratch himself. It is a small stall with only 4 tables and 12 chairs.
It is the most expensive street noodles in town, now at USD 3.50 a plate, with choice of pork fat and corn oil. If wish to be extra healthy, customers are welcome to bring their own cooking oil, such as canola or olive oil. There are only two types of noodles, non vegetarian and vegetarian. Non vegetarian includes fish balls, char siew and shrimps. Vegetarian has only bean sprouts and greens.
Tricky though, he likes to travel. So the stall is only open half the time during the year. He travels up to one month at a time. Kinda make the rice noodle more exotic. Is he there, is he not there …
Update : Apparently it is USD 2.20 a plate. My mother ordered a lot of extras which was why I paid USD 3.50 a plate last night 
The Bluest Eyes
Toni Morrison’s amazing book, The Bluest Eyes, is the most touching book I have read so far. It is a story about an African American girl who wanted nothing but a pair of blue eyes. How she wished for something as strange as that is the essence of the book. It highlights the misery of black people living in a white society, with child sex, irresponsible parents and corrupt society.
Pecola Breedlove is the black girl who is raped by her father. The child later died in infancy. Her parents’ life story was presented in the book, which set way of what happened to Pecola in the future. Her father Cholly’s childhood, her mother Pauline’s life and their later troubled marriage. The parents, and the world where she lived, had made Pecola the way she was.
In her own wretched world, she had her own ideas of beauty, probably shared by every black girl those days. Blue eyes, blonde lockets and pale skin were the prize she wished she could have. That way, she could be accepted by her own parents, friends, schoolmates and teachers. At the end, she had to endure the humility of the ill-fated pregnancy, the runaway father and people around her who could not look at her in the eyes because she is just “dirt” and Breedloves are “animals”.
There are a lot of Pecolas out there even today at this modern age. We are constantly reminded what the ideal beauty should be. There are those who are strong, who can resist the stereotyping and strive under their own unique individualities. But there are also weak souls, who are dictated by media and others, of how they should be. They are the ones who will be imprisoned by those set of “blue-eyes” rules all their lives. It is as sad as it is real.
What is your idea of beauty?
SwitchBank in BookShop
This is NOT a hardware store. This is a bookshop. And the wall behind the casher IS full of switches, proudly displayed. Normally switches are secretly hidden behind counters, shyly tucked away. In this shop, they are part of the decoration.
Quite revolutionary, don’t you think ?
Easy and Breezy Peach Cheesecake
I am no good with baking at all. My partners will tell everybody who would listen that I am quite wrong for my job. After my weekend experimental session to make cheesecake, I now feel quite confident of sharing the dummy-proof recipe. Even I didn’t mess it up. Obviously, it was a chilled cheesecake. We don’t have a working oven at home.
Ingredients would be thick cream, cream cheese, gelatin, lemon juice, castor sugar, canned peach and a sponge cake as base. Mix cream cheese and sugar till smooth. Melt syrup from canned peach, gelatin and lemon juice over low heat.
Pour the gelatin mix into the cream cheese and also, crushed peach, stir well. Beat whipped cream till thick and add to the cream cheese.
Pour mixture onto the sponge cake base. Let cool and decorate with slices of peach. For extra gloss, pour some plain jelly on top. It is easy and tastes as smooth as baked cheesecake.
Monday with the Paper
Today was a slow day in work wise. I spent most of my afternoon devouring one of the local online English newspapers site. After reading The Jakarta Post, I did find some headlines that were entertaining and worth re-telling. Embrace yourself. Here they come :
- Masseuses who work in massage parlors in Java have agreed to wear padlocks on their pants as ordered by local state government to curtail prostitution in the beautiful holiday city
- Another piece of Fitna commentary where the commentators wrote much better comments on the subject than the Chief of Editor him / herself
- The alleged conspiracy theory thrown by one of the readers on why Astro, pay cable television service - owned by local conglomerate group and Malaysian TV company, was really shut off since last Friday. Thankfully, it is back on now.
- How Islam “accept homosexuality” by some Muslim leaders in Indonesia and the readers are totally shocked and repulsed by that idea
- Update : How the Sukarno Hatta International Airport in Jakarta come up having the worst toilet facilities of all airports and the head of airport operator told the newspapers that they have no budget to fix the toilets nor keep them clean since …. 1985! (I add the keep clean part myself, he kinda implied that in my opinion)
The readers really do have more honest opinions than the journalists, which made the reading of the news interactive and two ways. I always think of local newspapers are full of something not worth reading. Well that was fun. I need to read more local news and probably, less CNN.
Weekly Winners
This week I have decided to take picture on my oil paintings. They are pretty basic objects of everyday item I found in our house. They are humble objects but nevertheless quite special to me.
mug in oil
chinese medicine steamer
earthware and oranges
Good News, Finally
Good news that the new MacBook is here. I have been using it for two days. Still no idea of how to deal with everything, which can be explained by the mishap in resizing images. But I am loving it already! I know, I need to shake Windows out of me. It is the coolest piece of gadget I have ever owned. As I was told, it is the porsche of all computers.
Another piece of good news is that the new passport is here too! 
That is not without incidence. I was told that my old passport has another month before expiring, so I had to pay fine of IDR 100,000 (equivalent of USD 10). Another lesson learned, never renew before expired date. Kinda like canned food. Then because I wanted my old passport back, I needed to pay an extra IDR 50,000. I just needed it too badly to make any arguments on the “rules” or “regulations”.
Lastly, people in Indonesia are able to access YouTube already, after being blocked by the government for a couple of days. The headline on our local newspaper today said “The new IT regulations is not targeting journalists. Just bloggers!” The piece of regulation quoted is “People who have no rights who pass / transmit / transfer any information that will damage other party’s good name” Two good things for me though. I can still make fun of myself in the blogsphere and the “movie” is still in YouTube! Apparently, the threat made was not working and those who wants to watch it or download it, be my guest.
Am I too perky or there is just too much good news cramped in one post?
Stars and Forks of Eating Out
Ouestion : What is a good restaurant according to you?
For most of us, dining out has been more and more of everyday thing to do. I do know people who eat out three meals a day. I love eating out too. But because of some personal health reason, I can’t do that as much as I want to. But everytime I do eat out, it is always a special occasion. Even when it is for a simple bowl of wonton noodles or just a cup of coffee. I know it is silly but that is how some of us enjoy life.
We can not just pack up and drive up to the mountain (although I can, and I do that a lot these days) or grab a passport and fly to exotic places. For me, dining out is like a fun trip. And there is nothing more annoying when my “fun” trip is when encountered by nasty service or substandard food.
Max’s is my favourite restaurant in Legazpi City
This is not a Michelin guide to restaurants, I am not giving out any chillis, stars, forks, knives, plates or anykind of cutleries. This is just merely Andie’s guide to pick out her favourite dining out places.
Hygiene - I place food sanitation to number one priority in my eating out experiences, afterall, I put enough garbage in my body already. I am not willing to pay for anymore.
