Just Too Little Time » Current Events

Enjoying The Long Weekends

elna — Sat, 29 May 2010 03:12:39 +0000

I love May! It has two long weekends to enjoy. Two weeks ago we had the Ascension (of Christ) Day long weekend and this week is Vesak Day long weekend. Vesak day is a celebration of the birth, the Enlightenment, and the death of the Buddha. Here in Indonesia, the celebration of Vesak (Waisak) Day 2010 is centered at Borobudur Temple in Magelang, Central Java.

Monks doing rituals during the celebration of Vesak Day at Borobudur Temple

Happy Vesak Day! And happy weekend everyone, I’m out of town now enjoying the holiday!

Picture source: The Jakarta Post

It’s Been Raining Every Morning

elna — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:58:24 +0000

Dark clouds

For the last few days every morning I was greeted by rain, vary from light to heavy. It is so easy to become lazy in the weather like this. Often times I was tempted to go back to sleep instead of getting ready to work. Yesterday morning for example we had heavy rain with strong wind when I woke up and still the same when I left the house. If not for an important appointment I had to attend that day, I would have made a long list of excuses to skip work .

Anyway, this situation is expected to happen as according to our weather agency (BMKG) January and February 2010 is estimated to be the peak of the rainy season. Rain will fall in no time, both the scale of mild, moderate to heavy. Earlier this week the agency also issued warning of lightnings and strong winds during rain in Jakarta and its surrounding areas for the next few days. Residents are to be alert of extreme weather change at least until January 17th. Oh it’s gonna be a challenge to go to the office in the morning!

Rains created puddle in our yard

Welcoming 2010

elna — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 07:00:07 +0000

Wishing everyone a Blessed New Year. Happy New Year 2010!

Merry Christmas To All

elna — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:52:17 +0000

It’s only hours before Christmas (the countdown widget up there is clearly not using my time zone), so I thought I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas before I got busy with family. We’re going to church to attend Christmas Eve service tonight and have family dinner at home.

Have a blessed Christmas everyone

Rain’s Jakarta Concert

elna — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:07:24 +0000

It was one big event for Korean drama/celebrity lovers in Jakarta. Rain, the top Korean hip hop singer, came to Jakarta on his Asia Tour and held a concert last Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at JITEC Mangga Dua.

I have to admit I’m a big fan of him, fell in love with him since his drama series “Full House” few years back. Though I don’t follow Korean drama religiously as I used to, I still occasionally buy his DVD movies or CD album. Feel like teenagers again, lol.

I was really tempted to go to the concert, it must be fun to join the clouds, but decided not to. Couldn’t leave my baby. Hopefully there will be a DVD of his concert in Jakarta soon

Anyway, here’s a clip from his concert last Thursday.

Can’t Find Julia!

elna — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:59:17 +0000

Ever since it was confirmed that Julia Roberts would be filming in Bali for the film adaptation of the book “Eat, Pray, Love”, everybody in my office started to talk about it. Though we’re not in Bali, we’re in Jakarta, but our company have several assets there and regularly send staff to Bali on office duty. So we were hoping that we could match our schedule there with hers. Who knew maybe we could see the pretty woman in flesh! Silly? I know!

I was actually scheduled to be in Bali next month but due to my maternity leave I had to handover my work to my coworker. In my “things to follow up” notes to my friend I jokingly added “find Julia Roberts and tell her I say hello ”.

Last night, my friend who replaced me sent a text message from Bali. I thought he was going to report about his work there. But no he only wrote a short message, “Sorry El, can’t find Julia! lol”.

Anyway, here’s the news about Julia Roberts shooting in a traditional market in Ubud, Bali. It’s in Bahasa though. It said that Julia was tired during the shooting because she had to repeat the scene several times. Apparently the local fruit sellers who played as themselves were too nervous to be in one scene with the Hollywood star, even though they were previously rehearsed.

Watching Breaking News (update)

elna — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:00:12 +0000

Since 3AM this Saturday morning I’ve been watching breaking news on TV about our anti-terrorist squad exchanged fire with alleged terrorists inside a house in Temanggung, Central Java, one of them was believed as the country’s most wanted man, Noordin M Top. The man has been hunted for 7 years and believed responsible for the deadly suicide bomb attacks at JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton, Jakarta, last month.

Until now the police have rounded up the house for almost 17 hours and the reporters have constantly given details about what was happening. I feel like watching an action movie only this one is real. I wish I could stay longer in front of my TV but I can’t, it’s almost 9AM now and I have something to do. Will update about this later.

***

Update: the shootout ended shortly after I left, around 10AM. There was only one body found in the house. Later the National Police chief said they could not yet disclose the identity of the killed man. They will announce it after DNA test result next week. Many people doubted that it was Noordin’s body, I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t him. Here’s the video of the shootout.

Presidential Election Result

elna — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:58:10 +0000

A few hours after I voted we already could see the election result. Based on the quick count result our current president with his new partner won the election with over 50% votes. That means we don’t need to do the second round election. Off course it was still temporary numbers as the official result from the general election committee was still two weeks away, but so far quick counts never failed.

It didn’t surprise me at all as it was predicted by so many surveys before the election. The big question would other candidates accept the results with big heart? Would they congratulate the winner like they said while they were campaigning? If so, that would be a great surprise ^_^

Presidential Election 2009

elna — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:15:09 +0000

Indonesia Presidential Election 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
8 AM – 1 PM

Within hours we’re going to have an important event that will determine this country’s future (at least for the next 5 years), and here I’m at 2 AM watching last tribute for MJ live from LA. Will I have the strength to go to the ballot box later?

Despite so many broken promises from our previous and current leaders, I still believe it’s important for me to cast my vote. I owe that to my kid’s future (sounds silly huh? hmm… maybe). Even if my candidate doesn’t win, at least I can say I’ve done my part. Somehow I think it’s easier that way, because I can’t think of what to say if my candidate does win but then turns out lying. Oh well.

“Let’s choose the best for this country. Five minutes for voting, five years we’ll move on.” – Cokelat

Finally We Got The Candidates

elna — Sat, 16 May 2009 02:48:10 +0000

At the very last moment, finally we know who’s going to run for the presidential election next month. I’m not going to mention their names because that’s not important, besides I’m not too fancy about politics and not going to talk about it in my blog. Just wanna share how I feel about this upcoming presidential election.

As a citizen who’s going to use my right to vote next month, I can’t help feeling insulted with what our politicians doing right now. They waited until the last moment to finally reach the agreement with their coalition partners about their candidates. And ironically all this time they said they stood up for the people? Really? As if we didn’t know the real reasons behind the long (almost) endless discussions/negotiations between them. It’s about power sharing! I bet if there was no dateline they would still continue bargaining each other.

Anyway, now we already got the candidates name, God helps us to choose the right one, amen.