Bali ~ Island of Paradise Nov 2015 Day 4

After dophin watch, set back, and started making our way back to Kuta. Before that, we had to visit the hidden secret of Hot Spring Banjar at the Singaraja district. Banjar can be reached from parking lot along 5 mins walk. The hot spring was public swimming area, with multiple pools and streams of hot water piping thru the wall.

Mom posing next to a pool.

The bath was refreshing and relaxing.

A side trip to Buddhist temple, Brahmavihara Arama.

A nice secluded place

Then, ready to set off to the south, we passed the twin lake of Batur, Danau Tambligan and Danau Buyan that are located side-by-side.

Family photo

Then we travelled the city, as we had time to spare, and stopped by Toko Krishna to buy souvenirs for Handy, along the Sunset Road. Then it's time to catch 6pm sunset at Uluwatu Temple.

The temple was filled with people, and it was my first time to visit Uluwatu finally. The sky gave a promising but cloudy outlook for a nice sunrise today. Meanwhile, there was a public announcement to gather people for Kecak dance a traditional group dance in Bali that is commonly danced in a temple and during sunset, inducing trance.

Everyone must wear decent covered clothes, or a gold-cloth belt

Papa

 

Sunset majestic at Uluwatu Temple, Bali.

We finished very satisfied and awed by the natural beauty here. Then we set off for nightcap, by travelling and strolling along Jalan Pantai towards Poppies lane, with a spa at Soma Massage & Spa, and then settled for another dinner at that budget place. Mom had a scary looking pecel lele, which is a deep-fried catfish served with indo chili belacan.

Bali ~ Island of Paradise Nov 2015 Day 3

Day 3 started early at 8, we set off after leaving our big luggage in hotel, to a day stay at Pantai Lovina, North Bali. Lovina beach is known for its fine black sandy beach, near Buleleng which is a township north of Bali, and it was an old capital of Bali.

On our way there, we passed a couple of garden, one is the Royal Garden at Mengwi. The ground was peaceful and well maintained.

 The layout of the garden is it's rectangular square, passing a big aula on the right on the way in, we then encountered the Bali gate, and proceeding, we encountered the garden ground full of the traditional Balinese tower structure. Towards the end of the square, there was a big wild ground with pathways perfect for strolling under the hot sun.

On the way out, I posed with a Balinese structure that looks so prosperous with big tummy.

After that we proceeded up towards Batur Lakes, passing by Ulun Danu which which the sight on which Rupiah currency bill of 50.000,- was derived.

Oh yes, not forgetting lunch, in a Sundanese restaurant, which is tasty with nasi tumpeng, and Sate. The restaurant was totally empty when we ate with a garden pool, surrounded by pondok2x and many waitresses.

  Our tasty Sundanese lunch.

Mom posing with 50,000 rupiah

Me with Ulun Danu pura.

After that we proceeded northward, arriving at Waterfall Gitgit. It was so peaceful, after the rain, we trekked for about 30mins around 2km thru village pathway, lined up with small shops selling souvenir. Mom chatted with one of the storekeeper, who revealed that she rent one of those rustic stall for 150-thousand rupiah (around USD120 per month).

Gitgit waterfall, it was amazing.

Afterthus, we arrived at Lovina Beach. Searched for a motel or inn by roadside. We settled for the first one we encountered, which charge by aircon, having color TV, and 3 beds in a family room. We paid 300-thousand rupiah (approx. USD25). Then off to explore the beach.

Exploring Lovina beach

The beachside when we arrived, we say the group of many people who moved from the coast, to gather around a few speakers who preached peacefulness, religiousity, and character building.

Sunset

Lovina Square

There are also many local and domesticated dogs playing along the beach. The beach is around 70% local and it was non-peak season then.

Dinner at Warung Ayu

After strolling at the beach, we retired to our room, refreshed ourselves, then set off for a sumptous simple dinner at Warung Ayu. A popular place it seems, who charge approx USD2-3 per dish.

The next morning, we were awake by 6am to catch the dophin seeing. The dophins were wild, and live in one or two pods along the coast. Our small, narrow boat was powered by a noisy engine, carried the 3 of us and the captain, who stood by at the back of the boat. We paid Rp. 100rb (US$8 per person) for 2-hour round trip.

Our rickety boat #06

Mom, Dad, and me

Racing in sunrise with other boats

We set off about 30 mins before then the chase game began. The pods were finally discovered and it was almost like a game to locate and then travelled there. Even during this non-peak season there must be around 20 or so boats full of tourists who chase the pods. The dophins were disturbed, poor thing, but it was undescribable feeling to be seeing these group of free mammals travelling carefree in their wild habitat. Our captain was good, he often stayed outside the group and we were rewarded by frequent show of the jumping dophins, before the other boats approached with their urgent engine sounds.

In our final leg, after 20 mins or so, we were rewarded by the sight of dophins swimming underneath our boat, the few dark shapes like a blur before surfacing on the other side.

Bali ~ Island of Paradise Nov 2015 Day 1 & 2

We planned the short trip to Bali in early Nov, right before the news about Volcano eruption in Lombok, a neighboring island eastward, causes the Bali Ngurah Rai airport to be shut down a few times. Unfortunately we booked on Jetstar which due to its own "security" protocol refuses to fly from Singapore, and onwards to Australia despite many other airlines flying safely. I booked my leave over Deepavali holiday on Tuesday.

Me at Tanah Lot sunset

Tart Blanc

Went with mom to redeem tart blanc voucher from groupon. Ended up the tiny place was full, went to Mos Burger next to it at Millenia Walk. Afterwhich we strolled around in Harvey Norman. The Tart has to book 3 days in advance. We ended up purchasing display-set Bosch vacuum cleaner that is on 50% sale.

Finally we are enjoying Tart Blanc tart, today on Friday, so yummy and fresh. Not very sweet, but you can tell it is baked with care and high quality ingredients. Each is SG$7.50 so pretty pricey for a tiny indulgence.

I first had the Banana Chocolate Silk tart, Marinated Bananas, Caramel Sauce, Roasted Banana Cream & Chocolate Silk Cream. The banana and chocolate is always a good combination.

I then shared the Blood Orange Matcha tart, that is made of Orange Jelly, Orange mousse with Jivara Chocolate filly, & crumbly Matcha base.

Credit, from various internet sources. http://danielfooddiary.com/2014/01/24/tartblanc/

Diary

6-month I see had past since my last blog entry. Perfect timeline aligned to my new job, new org. Survived 2 cycle of QBU, last one was toughest from internal grindwork. Still think I am trying to make an impact. It's bizarre, confusing, settling, and frustrating at times. But I definitely learn a lot. Not comfortable at all. All the time. Which is good. Tension/stress. Learning how. Push and pull. Worry more about certain things. Worry less about satisfying other people. My career. My growth. My image. My perception. My anger. My smile. My frustration. My drive. Passion.

Churn and mixed.

Life. I feel alive and not bored. Making mistakes all the time. Not perfect. And that's alright.

Book read

Today I finished up a book that's been sitting on my shelf, What Alice Forgot. The story line was smooth, narrative interesting from first-person and third-person point of view. I love the POV from Alice's 30-year old self as well as the sense of the grown-up busy housewife of Sydney urban mom with 3 children. A delicious way to spend my lazy Saturday.

Inspired by this article Pay it Forward

Pay It forward is a movement started in 2000s where the idea is when someone show you an act of kindness you "pay it forward" by passing the act of kindness to another person, by being kind.

This morning I read an article of a very nice man who leave an anonymous tip of 3k to a waitress and encourage this movement inspired by his former middle school teacher. http://www.reesspechtlife.com/. Read the full story here.

Which Avenger's character are you?

I am going to movie club for Avengers' Age of Ultron screening. The group in Whatsapp is abuzz with this quiz: which Avenger's character are you ;-) Take it here at zimbio. Happy weekend!

Attracted by advertisement, i continued to take the next test, which Life Ambitions' you should be. wookay, here is my result. The image just cracks me up. LOL

Dream big.

I said good bye my Business Group

Last night , we went out for my farewell dinner, on Monday I'll be starting my new job in a role with Asia Pacific Microsoft Enterprise group, as their Annuity lead.

I am excited, sad, nervous, worried, excited (yes, I said this twice now), about the opportunities, and what lie in the future.

For Dinner we went out for Catalunya, which I love. Its kitchen is headed by a group formerly in kitchen of El Bulli, which was voted a couple of times as the top restaurant in the world. El Bulli was then closed down, as the Chef/Owner wanted to restart his enterprise.

Catalunya is located at a unique shell-like structure out of the bay in Marina Bay Singapore. This allows the dining area to be surrounded by the view of Marina Bay from Fullerton, towards Marina Bay Sand, across to Esplanade. Its door is simple and easily missed. It used to offer 1-for-1 cocktails at the bar, which has been discontinued. My favorite drinks are Flamenco Martini and Sangria.

farewell team, mbs.

Microsoft 40th Anniversary and Its 2014 Layoff finally concluded

I read today that Microsoft has finally announced its March layoff last Friday US time. This is a relief for many as a conclusion of the final phase and now we can enter the new Era. Bill Gates sent a special memo marking 40th Anniversary of Microsoft.

Here is Bill Gates in 83 seconds from CNN Money.

Qing Ming 2015

I went back to Jakarta following a 3-day long weekend over Easter. I attended Qing Ming which is the tomb-sweeping time for traditional Chinese family to gather around ancestral home / burial ground to get together and clean up the resting ground of our ancestor. It happens on early April, family may choose either the weekend prior or the weekend after April 1.

My family chose to gather for my paternal grandmother's tomb at Cilegon, around 90k east Jakarta. We picked up 2ko who prepared bakpao (meat dumpling), bakchang (pork meat dumpling), and "huatkwee" (translated literally as 'growth cake'). Mom and Dad cooked homemake fried yam cakes, that is crispy and savoury, and is a family favorite. We set off at 640am to pick up Sen and then 2ko at her house at Kedoya, then proceeded to meet the convoy at KM 42 by tollroad before meeting up just past the tollbooth at Cilegon Timur.

The car convoy proceeded to highway, and then turned to village roads that is damaged by the sand mining trucks, before proceeding further into the village. I remembered the ground to be relatively empty, and it was now full with various grave stones. My grandmother's place is one of those on the top, near a yellow-painted gazebo, and is overlooking the area full of rice paddyfields, and sometimes you can hear birds chirping and rooster crowing. It is indeed a beautiful and serene resting place, one that is rare these days given the cost of empty land. A couple of village kids gathered around and singing, and waited for the leftover fruits or some small changes that outpour from the hearts of the families who gathered.

The ritual starts with cleaning of the graves, from a year worth of dusts, and grass which grew tall since last year's sweeping. I imagine that when the ritual started in China, they must have chosen this time a few months after Spring festival when the weather permits a cleaning, out of the winter frost and the spring grass and flowers, while allowing the descendants a reason to gather and retain the family bond. We then brought over the cakes, sweet ones, the meat meals, and fruits (pineapples, grapes, apples are the favorite) over. This was also complemented by boxes of paper gold, paper monies, paper clothes, and other offerings. We then lined up to offer our players and remembrance and then lighted up the rest of red candles and 'hio' incense around the ground. After that, the wait, and the chat, and the gossiping began over family catch-up while waiting for my grandmother's spirit (hopefully) to come over and enjoy the food offerings. After a period of time deemed appropriate, we then started burning the papers offering. The sun was blazing hot under a clear cloudless sky, it was amazingly bright and a beautiful day. My grandmother is obviously blessed lady, her five sons and four daughters have wonderful grandsons and grand-daughters. And the grandsons from each of her sons, except one, were cooperating to undertake this task of sending the underground wealth to her. I watched with pride and a slight sense of wistfulness of her happy achievements, a slight smart housewife supporting the family as life partner to my late grandfather who was known to be de-facto village chief. After this stage, this was completed by my eldest male cousin, completed the burning by dousing a circle of water around the pot. Then we offered our final amen, and started packing the fruits and cakes to gazebo and enjoyed the light meal together. The final stage was observing grounds around for various improvements and clean-up activities, such as hacking away two trees offending the view from my grandmother's gravesites, and lots of hustle and bustle over a tree right on the front-right of the site where a tree with thorny trunk sprung up high, and its thorny branches protuded dangerous. We stayed to monitor and supervise, as apparently the keeper did not follow up as instructed last year after we left. The tree also has a natural bird nest resting on one of its high branches, a cause of lots of pointing and awe.

We then said goodbyes and proceeded back to Jakarta. Strangely the sky turned grey and started to rain heavily, which is a blessing on a day like this and is considered to be a good sign. I found this trip to be useful bonding over my root, my ancestor, and my extended family in general. I wish that we can do this at least once a year in the future.

Day of Mourning in Singapore

This morning, Singapore woke up to a very sad news of the passing of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew (LKY). He was a strong leader who lead the founding father of Singapore. I am saddened and share my grieve with the rest of fellow Singapore. It must be very hard for his family, and PM Lee Hsien Loong who conducted press release at 8am this morning in a stoic and touching speech although he must be very sad inside.

Singapore, and the World lost a great leader today. Such is life. LKY left behind a strong legacy, and a life lived to the fullest and most productive. Rest in Peace, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew.

https://www.facebook.com/RememberingLeeKuanYew

Amy Tan Valley of Amazement

This is my first Amy Tan's book. Amy Tan is a Chinese-American author who's famed for writing novels with are sensitive, depicting the wrought-emotional ties between mother-daughter as this showcases in this novel. I bought the book at the Kinokuniya bookstore in Bangkok where I was wondering on a Sunday the weekend before my business trip.

The review on Amazon turned out to be less than fantastic. I thought this book was entertaining but I have to agree that I felt no more emotional connection. There are certain parts that are very good, such as the letters' exchanges. There are parts in between that are not realistic and seemed like a chore to read.

My learnings are it is tough to grow up in cross culture environment. One shouldn't take one's fate for granted. And emotional damage of abandonment and neglect are greater in future in the form of inability to love and receive love. Ability to receive love is also very important, and as essential to happy and loving life.

Book

Hereby my book list of year 2015:

Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling
It is said that Rowling published the book under a different pen-name. It had a decent success until it exploded when people got to know (or it was leaked) that she wrote this book. I enjoyed this book craft. One review said "this book is about pain and cruelty". This book is astonishingly well written, humorous, and humane.

Recovering

It is day 4 of my pneumonia. I am recovering - or I think I am. I'm still coughing but at less intensity. The phlegm or the secretion from lung, you are supposed to get rid off, is thankfully didn't turn glob green. But instead lighten its color to light yellow.

I tried to pace my antibiotics, and since I am supposed to take twice a day, I pace it 12-hour a part at 11 o'clock. I then take the probiotics roughly in between that, trying to take them in between meals.

I made homemade soup yesterday with hotpotch of greeneries, red and yellow bell peppers. Today I made pork meatball with simple recipe of minced pork, flour (supposed to be cornflour but I only had all-purpose flour at home), spring onion, then salt and pepper. They are comfy food.

Researching only, it seems that the only food to avoid is dairy products, such as milk as it allegedly promote phlegm production. I am reading David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell, a recommended read.

2-Day Medical Leave

There is flu virus that is going around Singapore. I heard cough in office, mall, library, etc. Be careful. I had been having cough, with progressive improvements, until last night I suddenly caught a bad fever that leave me with most horrible body ache, and temperature at high 39 degrees.

Luckily the fever broke in the morning, after a short conference call, I saw doctor. And be given 2 days medical leave to rest and take care of myself. 10ml Dhasedyl syrup for cough 10mlx3, Papain 2tabx3, and Diclofenac 1tab 25mgx3 for cough relief and inflammation.

Update: I got allergic reaction on the third time I was taking the medications. I saw the doctor the morning after, and after an X-Ray was diagnosed with pneumonia. This explains the cough, fever, weakness, body fatigue, that I had. The X-ray showed white patch on the lower right lung. I got 4 medications (1) anti-histamine for my allergic reaction Fexofenadine (Telfast 180mg)1tabx1, (2) antibiotics 28tabs total for 1-week course, 2tabsx2 daily Clarithromycin 250mg tab, (3) probiotics Lactobacillus Acidophilus (Diaarstope) 1tabx1, (4) for cough relief Codipront 1x3 daily.

Advices for patients with Pneumonia recovery
1. It may affect people, even if young and fit. Drink lots of liquids and get enough exercise.
2. Breath normally and deeply. It is advised to walk in relax mode and sitting down rather than lying unless you are tired. To help lungs exercise.
3. Eat the full course of antibiotics to clear the bacteria fully, even if feeling better.
4. Treat it seriously as pneumonia can make you very sick. See doctor if there is no recovery after taking medicines for 48 hours.
5. If like me, also prescribed with probiotics, the probiotics help promote growth of good bacteria after the antibiotics wipe all the bacteria. Take at least 2 hours within the antibiotics and adviced about 1 hour before food.

The doctor gave medical leave for the rest of the week (today is Wednesday) so I have enough rest and hopefully I am recovering in my next visit due on Monday.

I am so blessed to catch allergic reaction coz otherwise I wouldn't have seen the doctor again today and got finally diagnosed correctly. And I would likely keep on working when I got back to office due to my schedule, so I receive much blessings in hindsight that I am thankful for.

Thank you God.

Nice Madeleine Recipes

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-classic-lemon-madeleines-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-187109

How to Make Classic French Madeleines

Makes 24 madeleines

Jan 4 The Day before Epiphany

Life has no graduation. It goes on and on without segregated ending that could make you feel frustrated. The question is on coping and on altering expectation.

Here is a shocking story about a 2-year old girl living with her drug-abusing parents in Russia. The girl had such a sad and gloomy face. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/shocking-photographs-two-year-old-girl-living-3284053

Archive: 2014 Target List

• reach 54kg without starving myself
• sabbatical - done
• 2.5hr 21km - done
• finish 2014 exh list
• pass driving lesson - done

Archive: 2014 Exh List

• my arts space
• 48 bm
• manipedi - 2 left mani
• central mall
• tg katong facial
• 3 facials - minus 1
• golf lessons

Cleaning up my blog

It's approx 16 days to new year 2015. Time to do check in in my whereabout and also clean up some blogs.

Here's what I posted with respect to 2013, 2014 "achievements":

So, in 2013, I didn't go to Egypt, Latin America, nor Switzerland. However, I resolved to do my sabbatical and I got a healthy outcome. In year 2013 I was also promoted and became the regional lead in my job. And had 2 almost relationships that broke my hearts but help me grow.

Year 2013 "Heartbreak Year"

Year 2014 "Sabbatical and Balance year"

Year 2014 is best reset year from mental and spiritual balance. I regain my natural self and learned so much about life and balance.

Family holiday to bandung

Here is my super-long guide based on my last trip just for you guys. 

Quite useful and comprehensive guide about the city here: http://wikitravel.org/en/Bandung

Famous restaurants:

• Kampung Daun - means Leaf Village. Best time to go is Friday night. Service can be slow, but ask for Pondokan that is. Very taste bbq fish, and local food. The weather is cool and nice.
• 
  
• Rumah Strawberry - pick your own straberry, but the highlight is the local nasi liwet package. Very fragrant with friend or bbq chicken, etc.
• The Valley, is a restaurant in a hotel that is the top of the cliff. At lunch, you can see the cliff overseeing the Bandung city. At night should be pretty romantic :) the price is steep though, means like Singapore level pricing. The way there is also very scary and steep, an interesting experience, as you follow narrow road among the villas. #2 The Valley
  
• And then Warung Bu Tris, Braga Permai, Rm Ampera, are a couple of wellknown quality and name.

For Shopping Cihampelas, I feel by staying there at night you’ll be able to find some interesting things. Other than Cihampelas:- there are some unique factory outlets along Jalan Riau with better quality clothing and shirts. Heritage is the most famous one, it's housed within an historical building. And there is a couple others side by side along the walking distance. Conveniently, there are snacks pop-up stores just outside to do some local snack shopping. Check out the “branded bags” section and let me know what you think hoo hoo

Learning Chinese

Based on my (layman) theory, facial expression and language spoken have strong influences on people's face due muscle development. So to my surprise, I am now known as looking like "Filipino" due to my non-Chinese face, and thought to be "Indonesian" due to my non-Chinese surname.

To uncover back my heritage route, I decided to learn Chinese, or rather continue my lessons on the long-lost language (to me). There are a couple of options for learning Chinese for professionals in Singapore. My preference and feedbacks:

NUS Extension, the arm for continuous education organized by NUS (National University of Singapore). The class is generally well attended by foreign professionals, taught by native speaker, and have a good curriculum and class progression from beginners. Generally each module is 4-5 months long, twice a week at weekday nights.
(now this has program has been discontinued).

Some online courses or tuition classes. You can try searching here for language courses.

I also found some interesting courses, organized in China/Beijing.

• Language courses organized by Beijing Cultural and Learning Centre: 2weeks summer class every day 8am-12pm. http://school.cucas.edu.cn/course/detail?sid=17&courseid=41422.
• Website to learn a character everyday http://www.learnchineseeveryday.com/

Work, Work, then Something exciting

I am getting a new PC build, diy from a computer shop at Sim Lim Square (SLS). How it started is I was wanting to retrieve data, quite innocently, from my old harddisk that has been buried in the box. Most of the older harddisk is of IDE type, which means that current standard SATA, could no longer read the harddisk. I went to SLS to get a reader - and Video Pro was the only shop online that stocks the Sabrent. I called the shop at 720pm, to check for opening hour the day after, and was informed that they are open until 8pm everyday.

I visited the shop, and was interested in the build. After 1hr consultation, where the shop is closed, but the lads are very happily obliged and I put $200 deposit for an AMD configuration within, or rather close to my original budget of $1500 SGD.

After a night of research, my system is capable of producing this quality in Final Fantasy XIV ARR - woohoo. I have to compare this High Desktop setting with the miserable specs  of my laptop (note: it is a decent 3-year old laptop) under Extremely Low Laptop setting. The graphic, the texture of cloths, dirts, roads, the weapons, the special effects of spells and fire - are all beautifully rendered.