Wok of Life of a Wannabe Wanderer?

What a coincidence! Two of my pals, former colleagues in SCB, had the same wedding date on June 24. Luckily, the reception was held separately. One in the morning close to noon time, while the other was held in the evening. Didn’t seem to be a special arrangement or sort of compromise though.. Guess we would have split the armada into two if it had been held at the same time.

The morning one was Andrew’s party and I happened to be one of the guest reception, known as Among Tamu. What an experience. At first I was a bit hesitate when he asked me about that. No special reason, just that I really don’t know what to do with this role. I was convinced after learning that no special preparation is to be made and all I have to bring is myself! With good intention to help a pal (well, isn’t it a great honour to be asked ?), I proudly took the invitation. The hardest part was to keep the secret of the wedding itself. Well..well..  2 months before D-Day, I was  informed and invited for the role and  had to promise not to tell anybody until the official announcement!

The wedding was held at Bogor, the rain city.. Quite a far distance. Waking up early, I went to Bogor with Eka, also a former SCB’ers and currently colleague of Andrew taking Busway to reach Gambir station. Arriving there, we proceeded directly to the dedicated counter selling local and Debotabek region train ticket. With spare of 15 minutes from the train scheduled departure, we sat calmly in the sitting area without knowing that we were actually waiting in the wrong line! Having waited for 20 minutes, we started to wondering why the h*ll train wasn’t coming. Walking toward the officer and asking him, he pointed out to the slowly moving just departed train as the one we should embark.. Not a good sign.. We left Gambir station at 8.30, the next train schedule for Bogor. Luckily we departed early in the morning. After around 1 hour trip, we reached Bogor and took another 15 minutes by "angkot" to the venue.

The second unpleasant incident happened shortly after arriving there. Hehe.. my fault for not confirming with Andrew prior to the trip. I mistakenly wore the costume intended for "Pagar Bagus" instead of "Among Tamu". Not until a phone call from the groom that I realized it. What made it more awkward, I didn’t bring anything other than a pair of shoes and a t-shirt while Among Tamu had to wear formal trouser. I was very guilty that Andrew tried to find it for me. He2. Remind me of Chinese proverb of "Yue Pang Yue Mang" Sorry & Thanks Ndrew.. !

The reception began at 11.00 AM but there were already a few of early birds. Our main jobs were to identify VIPs and VVIPs of the invitees, inform them to the MC and lastly escort them to the dedicated room. Everythings went fine, only a small misunderstanding which caused more guests than should be were admitted to the room. He2.. Sorry again Ndrew, we were just following the instructions having confirmed it several times.. But seemed like it was not as the original plan. The reception ended at 1.30 PM. After a series of photo shoot, delivering live testimonial, we left for train station and managed to get 2.30 PM train leaving for Jakarta.

I arrived at home 4.30 just to learn the black-out. With another wedding reception at 7 and fatigue over the lengthy trip, I took a nap in the midst of bloody heat. Waking up at 5.30, there was still no electricity, which means No water.. Thanks to the kindness of my boarding house’s owner, managed to take a shower in the middle of dim light candle. Putting on Batik and shoes, went straightly to office building, the meeting point with other friends. We went to the party on free-ride, courtesy of Este, one best friend of mine since college time in her Yaris! He2.. Maklum lah.. anak kos..

The second wedding of the day was Ian’s.. I think it was the poshest wedding I’ve ever attended. The foods were awesome and some public figures were among the crowded attendees. Not surprising given……. =) Good thing was to catch up with other former colleagues, just like a small reunion with haha hihi.. After a photo session with the happy couple, went home with another free ride from Piesca n DJ. =p Arriving at 10 with darkness surrounded. Still no electricity..

Apparently there was explosion in one of the PLN electricity station earlier in the afternoon which affected Karet area. A night without electricity.. Not really big deal. Although a bit uncomfortable with the heat.. At first, it was estimated it’d take at least 3 days to fix the damage. But luckily, it took much less time. 24 hours later, black-out was gone, and now I’m typing this blog under clear light accompanied by favourite music from Winamp!

Congratz to Andrew and Ian…
Wishing you a happy life ahead and Andrew Jr and Ian Jr coming soon… ^_^

What would it take to make a series of films, one sequel to another, without losing the enthusiasm from the market and if possible, receiving more support ? Well a numerous factors can be considered. Big name actors and actresses or maybe more sophisticated and very high-tech computer effects. For movies that are brought to big screen based on comic adaptation, the producer might want to show up much high profile characters.

The two last reasons certainly fit perfectly to the latest super heroes movie : Fantastic Four : Rise of The Silver Surfer. While not the best, I personally perceive this movie is one of the spectacular super hero movies I’ve ever watched, at least much much better than its predecessor back in 2005. At first I was a bit sceptical about this movie when some friends suggested this one. Had one friend of mine not made an appointment to catch Shrek the day after and I had not watched Ocean 13 before, then I guess I’d be settled for a piece of dvd in the next few months. Well, no surprise then if you recall how crap is the first movie of Fantastic Four which I labelled the worst ever made super hero movies.

Speaking about sequels, we have seen a lot of them has been and will be thrown out to the market. It’s summer time.. time regarded as the most perfect time to screen a movie and also probably the most profitable time! Spiderman 3,  the final sequel of Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Fantastic Four : Rise of The Silver Surfer, Ocean 13 and Shrek 3 (the final one ? no?). Not to forget the upcoming Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix. In span of just few weeks, those Hollywood producer is really using this period to scoop big bucks! No problem though since each of them is unique and has its own fans base. What about the qualities ? Well, I’d say some of them are disappointing (spiderman 3 for example), some of them are better (F4), while some of them can’t be judged due to completely different plot between the former and the latter.

Disappointing or not, the rise and fall of sequel would very much depend on its predecessor and the viewer’s expectation. If the first one is so good that it makes you difficult to find a suitable word to describe it, then viewer would raise the bar for the upcoming sequels. That’s just normal.. One thing for sure, I personally think that sequels should be planned beforehand before the very first movie.. Not to be decided following the successful of the first one. Well, unless the movie-maker is so damn creative to turn the plot and write the scenario. Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of The Ring would certainly fall under the first category. And I think no one would argue with me those are really good movies. However, there’s also example of good movie in the latter category. Ice Age 2.. The hillarious one! For this case, we must give credits to the teams for their creativity! Creativity and ‘out of the box’ idea are certainly needed to produce a sequel not planned before. Or else, we would see disappointing sequels such as Infernal Affairs or our very own Tersanjung! Haha…

Today is Vesakh day, a holy day for Buddhism follower supposedly all over the world. But interestingly, it is not celebrated on the same day this year. Malaysia on May 1, Singapore on May 31, while Thailand on May 24. Just learned that this difference is due to the fact that two full moons happen to fall in one month based on Lunar Calendar. "Don’t sweat too much" on this one, that’s what the message delivered in the speech. What important is the spirit of Vesakh that should live.

Though not a very religious person, I went to temple with few friends in the morning. The most popular one, Ekayana Buddhist Centre in Tanjung Duren area. It was very foolish not to anticipate number of people who would pay a visit to temple on this occasion. Traffic jam happened along the tiny road on the way to the temple’s entrance. Along the road you could predict that most faces you saw were actually heading to the same destination. Reaching the main gate of the temple, I was astonished by groups of people queuing to enter the building. Should had come earlier to avoid long queue and got a quite OK spot. Nevertheless, having waited for around 15 minutes, we finally managed to slip in.

The first program carried out was Pindapatta, a tradition in which Monks carries a bowl to receive offering from peoples. The response was so huge that three trips had to be made to accommodate all offerings. Just understood later that there was more than 6,000 people attended the ceremony. A very  big crowd indeed. But seems like most of them were one-time-year-round visit. Hehe.. have to admit that I belong to this group too. After the tradition, we continued with praying and paritta reading, and not to forget a few minutes of meditation.

Speaking about religion and its relation with Politics, I tend to support the idea of Secularism. In my opinion religion is one of people’s basic rights and it’s between people and his/her God, his/her believe. Thus, we should not interfere and mix up between those two. But to be honest, it’s not that easy. Even in country who proclaim itself as the most democratic nation, who is well perceived as secularism country, religion is still one area that could be decisive when it comes to election. The likes of conservatism follower will certainly vote for those who campaigns on traditional value which includes some religious stuff.

In regard to above, I was surprised during the Vesakh Day ceremony I attended. Never come across my mind that a Governor candidate would pay a visit to the temple and delivered a speech. It seemed fishy. Quite funny that he’d take that chance to proclaim himself officially as candidate for Governor seat. Although no "direct message" was uttered out, you’d be a fool if you didn’t understand the meaning. A man sitting next to me was saying "Haha.. a campaign". Dunno if it was meant for joke but to hear a greeting sent out in front of wrong audience is ridiculous.

Well, well, enough on politics. Happy Vesakh Day. May I spend more time to make more progress in spiritual side. Hopefully =)