The Secret

Earlier this week I watched a documentary called "the Secret". It was referring to the secret for getting what we want in life.

It uses the "Laws of Attraction" whereby we need to 1) ASK for the things that we want, then 2) ANSWER what to our requests via daily visual aids, then we will eventually 3) RECEIVE the things that we want. The world will give us what we want if we can focus.

A VISION BOARD was suggested to be developed and we should put in all the pictures and photos of the things that we want and look at the board daily. We have to think of the things all the time and eventually a "higher force" will make the things happen for us.

It is also important not to keep reminding ourselves about the bad things that happened and not to dwell in our sorrows. The negative thoughts will generate a vicious cycle and the higher force will grant us what we often think about.....the concept is like requesting multiple wishes from the genie in the Aladdin story (be it good things or bad things).

Here's a sample of the vision board that I have developed (what I want in my life):















Hopefully I will be able to get all of them in the near future!

Mayor Election in Palembang

June 7, 2008 is the election day for Palembang's mayor. This event is held once every 5 years. Our factory has only been established for 3.5 years, so this is the first time we had to give time off to employees to go back and vote.

Here are some interesting Indonesian words used during the election period and some interesting facts about elections and voting here:

1. COBLOS (sounds like & pronounced as job-loss) - to vote; literally it means "penetrating a soft object, like paper". Here they had to poke a hole through the voting sheet instead of putting an "X" or tick mark.
2. PILKADA - Abbreviation for PILihan (selection) - KApala (head) - DAerah (area), short for election.
3. TENDA - tents. They put up canvas covered tents at each community area for people to vote.
4. WALIKOTA - mayor
5. Voting period starts from 7am-1pm and the results will be announced by 7pm latest on the same day.
6. Rumors say that after 7pm normally there will be activities of unrest / demonstrations / violence from the losing parties and people are encouraged to stay home.
7. During the voting period 7am-1pm, all activities are put on hold and the day itself is actually a public holiday but it was not observed by our company. We still do not know whether the restaurants are open for lunch?

The next election will be the South Sumatra Governor election in September 2008 (but heard it might be delayed until after the Hari Raya Aidulfitri celebration in October 2008).

A Break After 3 Months

My work in Palembang only allows me to take 10 days off after working for 3 months. Last week was the time for a break and we decided to spend a few days in Port Dickson.

So we booked ourselves in Avillion Hotel Port Dickson, supposedly a 4 star hotel with over the sea chalets. The environment was pretty nice. All of us liked the place because:

1. We all love the beach & sea
2. We have a seaview room that has a balcony
3. We played in the sand then swam in the pool everyday
4. Loved the open air bathroom/shower
   

But a few minuses of that place were:

1. My wife got bitten by sand flies and they itched for a week!
2. I lost my credit card (partially my fault for not getting it back from the cashier after she swiped it, but if they were professionals they should have handed it back with the receipts)
3. The food is expensive but not up to a 4 star hotel's standard (too salty!)

In summary, we all enjoyed a short break after spending 3 months in Palembang.

Finally A Maid!

We just managed to get a stay-in maid a few days ago after more than a month living without a maid. We had to take her for a medical exam first to get tested for Hepititis B and Tuberculosis before confirming her to work for us.

According to the locals, many maids are afraid of taking blood tests because of the needles and also they believe that only the sick would go to hospitals. Perhaps the word "Rumah Sakit" in Indonesian language is creating the phobia because it literally translates to "House for the Sick".

We just hope that this maid would work diligently and be more polite because our previous one was constantly cutting corners and also a bit arrogant. This one is 18 years old and she used for work for some PUSRI people who mistreated her (they got her to take care of 3 kids and always delay her meal hours). Hopefully she could recognize the positive change in her new work environment and put in her best effort.

Still No Stay-In Maid

We have been living without a maid for one month now. During the first 2 weeks, my mother in law was here to help out but the following 2 weeks we had to do things on our own. So far my wife is still able to cope without a stay-in maid because she did a lot of planning and organizing of the food preparation and cooking upfront. We also benefited from the help of a cleaner lady who comes in 2 hours daily.

Here are some reasons why stay-in maids are so difficult to find in Palembang:

1. People here view a maid's job as less prestigeous
2. Wages are lower, approx USD57/month for stay-in maids (min wage here is USD103/month)
3. Some Muslims do not like to work for people who cook pork
4. Some Muslims do not like to work for people of different religion

We are still optimistic to get a good stay-in maid. So just need a little bit of patience.