Waitress - My new favourite movie

Last night I watched Waitress from start to finish. I had seen part of it before on a plane, and was pretty sure I loved it, but slept through a lot of it. I was waiting to see some of the scenes I remember from the first viewing, but I must have dreamed them because they didn't turn up this time. But it didn't matter, my dreamed scenes didn't make much sense anyway.

Oh this movie! What a tasty, sweet piece of loveliness!

It made me HUNGRY (not that I need any help with that). See, Kerri Russel plays a waitress with an awful husband and an unwanted baby in her belly. She expresses her angst through her extraordinary pie making.

I've always been a fan of pies, and have made a few in my life, but I don't think I could ever make another pie again as it will never come close to matching the (admittedly imaginary, movie-world) magic of the pies Kerri Russel made. I am grateful that there are no ovens in Banda Aceh so I am not tempted to foolishly attempt to make a pie right now.

Even if you're not a fan of pie (who are you anyway?? Soulless creature) you would probably love this movie anyway. It's clever, original, addresses important issews like gender-based violence (if you haven't signed the book sign it now), and it also just looks really nice. And if that's not enough, it also has grumpy old men and cute babies! It's true!

The fate of Kopi Manis

Kopi Manis's owner is back. But before I break out the champagne (not that you can buy champagne in Aceh)....

Last night he came over to see Kopi and begin the delicate handover process. You know, reintroduce puppy and owner, allow Kopi to refamiliarise herself with her owner's smell, etc.

But we didn't get around to discussing handover because it took Kopi's owner about 15 seconds to realise that his rooftop was no longer a suitable home for this very active and MUCH larger dog. So he asked if Kopi could live with us forever.

Ummm....No.

As much as I love Kopi (still only about 1/100th as much as I love say, the cake I'm eating right now), there is no way I will ever be able to tolerate her early morning barking. Or her mid-morning, mid-afternoon, mid-evening, late-night and other incidental barking. Or when she scrapes her food bowl along the cement to get attention. Or when she bites really hard. Or how she's stopped sitting when I tell her to sit.

Our housekeeper would also like Kopi to leave so she can replant the flower bed and hang out washing without Kopi tearing it off the line and making in a comfy bed for herself in the mud.

I have a secret plan for Kopi which I REALLY hope works out. I think she will be happier if it does, and it means she will be very, VERY far away from my bedroom window at 5.30am.

But in case I can't pull it off, can you guys spread the word that we have a puppy that needs a home (don't mention the barking and flower bed destruction though)? I know that the bulk of my readers are in Melbourne, and perhaps none of them are in Aceh, but you never know who is connected to who.

I was going to take a photo of Kopi to update you all on how big she's grown, but she's so excitable I can't get far enough away from her to take a photo. If nothing else I will take a photo of her biting my foot later this evening and post it here tomorrow.

Update: This is the best I could do (note the torn up box in the background. I thought she might have wanted a cosy place to sleep):

Early morning Banda Aceh

The strangest thing happened at 6.30 this morning. If I were to tell you without giving background I am sure that the bulk of responses would be along the lines of "you were awake at 6.30am?" or "you do exercise?"

Allow me to explain.

Most mornings I go out at about 6.30 to get some exercise (usually jog but this morning all I could muster was a brisk walk). My favoured approach of 'incidental exercise' (i.e. walking to work and taking the stairs) doesn't really work here in the land of chauffeur-driven cars and sexual harassment from boys on motorbikes so I have to make exercise happen....early in the morning.

I go out early because by 7am there are lots of cars, motorbikes and people around, which means two things:

1. I could get hit by a moving vehicle
2. I get stared at because a sleepy white person running around in trackies and listening to an ipod is just plain weird
   

But Banda Aceh is itself quite weird at that time of the morning for the following reasons:

• The sun is just rising, so it's not dark anymore, but the light is super creepy.
  
• It's quiet, which is just impossible to believe at any other time of day or night.
• There are so few people around we all say hello to each other and pretend we live in a less densely populated country where everybody knows everybody.
• There are few enough cars and motorbikes on the road that you can actually look away from oncoming traffic long enough to notice the mountains surrounding the city.
  
• The cows. They take over the streets at that time of the morning and I have to get way closer to big bulls than I am comfortable with. To be totally honest and share my fears, even the regular sized cows are pretty scary.
  

But, this morning an even weirder thing happened. I was walking past a house and a little girl, maybe 1 year old, was stumbling around her front yard crying. Like really bawling. In her left hand she had a really big knife. It was the sort of thing you would use to hack at something.

Usually I don't approach little kids here because they are scared of me and my creepy white face, but it didn't seem right to walk straight past this baby that was crying. So I stopped and talked to her, and made very subtle attempts to take the knife out of her hand, but all it did was focus her crying -- towards me.

Then her dad came out of the house and saw this foreigner girl harassing his baby and making her cry. I new it was futile trying to explain that I was only a secondary cause of crying (the first cause still unknown), so I just ran away.

A guide to living the life in Bangkok

I'm staying at the Rose Garden Riverside Hotel in Bangkok. In a room that looks like this:










In fact, this could be my room (it's the photo taken from the website). I'm sharing my room with another AYAD and even though we don't know each other it's still like catching up with a friend. And I'm pretty sure I remember her from the streets of Melbourne and uni days.

Anyway, as you might be able to tell from the photo, this place is fancy. I could never, ever have imagined how incredible this buffet is. I am eating tasty meal after tasty meal. I can't remember a time in my whole life where every mouthful of food has been so truly satisfying in a continuous three day period.

My brain is pretty tired from the workshop so I will allow photos to tell the story with minimal explanation on my part.

1. This is how we felt after 16 hours of travel to get from Banda Aceh to Bangkok (and what's more, this photo was taken the night after our arrival, after a solid 8 hour sleep).

1. This is the view of the pool from my window. I've been swimming twice in the morning and each time I've had the pool to myself. I could swim diagonally across it if I wanted and often did because I had no goggles so was essentially blind.

2. Ani, Inda and me in the Orchid Garden.
















3. Waterfall and balcony thing. At first this area seemed a little out of place and European in the Asian-Zen environment, but the lobby had a French theme about it too, so I think the European blend was actually planned. Not having seen anything remotely European in a long time, even faux-European was delightful.




















4. Toni playing the piano in the lobby. This is one of those silly pianos that plays itself. A good example of something that is fun and completely stupid at the same time.
















The music coming out of the piano was piped around the whole complex so you'll be wandering past a temple on the riverbank with water lilies surrounding it and cheesy classical music soundtrack follows your every step. I'm not sure what I would ordinarily make of it, but being in a place where things exist purely for their aesthetic beauty is so calming and restorative that I don't even mind a little bit of piped music.

Where is Sarah? Not in Banda Aceh!

Tomorrow I am going to Bangkok for work. I think this might be my first official work trip. I guess technically I had my costs covered to come to Aceh, so that might fall into the category of work-related travel, but it's not the same. I did go to Hamilton (not the island) for work in my last job, but I don't think it should be counted as a work trip when you go by minibus and it's in the same state as your office.

I will be back in Indonesia on Monday and back in Aceh on Tuesday morning. My phone will probably work in Thailand in case you have something really, really exciting to tell me.

Maybe I will post while I am away, but I'll probably be having too much fun "meeting and greeting" and doing "icebreaker" activities. YAAAAAY for workshops! If I'm lucky I might even get to brain storm some ideas on big sheets of paper and present them to the group in the form of a funny skit!

Oh yeah, I'll also be distastefully GORGING on the hotel buffet food. A buffet of Thai food?! Nice to meet you Mr Jackpot! It's going to be buffet-mazing!

Seriously though, I'm excited about the workshop because my colleagues and I are going to perform an Acehnese traditional dance at the Welcome Dinner. My language teacher just watched us perform and his encouraging words were, "you need A LOT of practice". ummm, thanks.

Here is a picture of my colleague Toni, fanning himself with the USD he got today in preparation for our trip (his commentary: "Oh I'm so rich I just like to use these extra notes as a fan"). He had to boost himself up to feel rich after handing over a very thick stack of Rupiah and taking away 5 measly notes.

Personal intention to donate organs as inappropriate post subject matter. Discuss.

An article in the Age today reminded me that I am yet to "register my consent to donate my organs and tissue and discuss it with my family."

It took me 25 years to get to Vicroads and sign some forms to get my Ls so I don't expect that I will get around to registering as an organ donor anytime soon (can I do it online?**) And I ALWAYS forget to bring it up when any of my family members are around. So I've decided to blog my intention to donate my organs.

This is a great idea for a number of reasons:

1. My whole family faithfully read my blog (right guys...right?)
2. Instead of telling one person who might forget (ummm, I remember Sarah saying something about organs but was it yay or nay?), I am telling at least 10 people which has got to improve the odds.
3. If I don't get around to registering sometime before I die when I'm 120 (and not a moment sooner) you can use this post as a legally binding statement of my intention (a blog post has to be legally binding somewhere in the world. Just send me there and start extracting those organs...maybe not China though, I don't want to be sold to rich people).

**post script. You can register online HERE! But you still have to send the form to Hobart or something.

CreaMayo Delight and other traditional Acehnese foods

I have just discovered a great restaurant in Banda Aceh. It has a very fancy interior including leather seats, artwork on the walls and is extremely clean. It seems to have taken on the role of "haven from the squares-ville world of Shari'a law" too. Quite a few women go there without a head scarf, and sometimes a boy and a girl will be there on what looks a lot like a "date".

This place also has a really catchy name. One of those "I wish I thought of that" kind of names. Pizza Hut. Like a hut with pizza in it!

Before you ask how I can overlook the poor quality of the pizza in my ode to PH, I must assure you that Indonesian Pizza Hut is very different to Australian Pizza Hut. Let me introduce you to a new world of culinary excellence.

Exhibit 1: When I was there on Saturday night I asked my friend to choose the pizza we would eat, and he suggested the "CreaMayo Delight". What is the CreaMayo Delight, I asked. "Oh just your basic mayonnaise pizza". We ordered it because it seemed too unbelievably delicious to leave untested.

The pizza was criss-crossed with mayonnaise and chilli sauce over chicken and tomato. And just in case you really love your mayo, a little fondue tray of mayonnaise stood on a podium in the middle of the pizza (for dipping purposes I assume).

The verdict on CreaMayo Delight: Kopi Manis LOVED the left overs.

failed sleep-in

Boy oh boy, I am sleepy grumpity grumps today. I haven't been getting to bed early enough this week so I decided to take advantage of my boss's absence today by sleeping in and come into work a little bit late. In truth I could probably come into work a little bit late any day because no one really notices, and no one would care, but here's a secret about Sarah: I NEVER break rules unless I can guarantee I won't get caught. Yep, my sole motivation for doing the right thing is to keep myself out of trouble.

So I went to bed last night without setting the alarm and had visions of sleeping in my very comfy bed until 8am...but it wasn't to be. I guess I'm being punished for something (probably my spineless, authority-fearing ways) and my punishment has been delivered in the form of this:

Kopi Manis has a truly excellent early morning routine of barking incessantly and pushing her water bowl around on the cement (bark, bark, scrape, bark, bark, scrape). Well, I showed her who was boss...I got out of bed at 7.15am to give her food (that she doesn't need because she is fat). Yep, the dog wins. But I gave her a stern look. OH YEAH, IT WAS STERN!

As a consolation I watched the end of the O.C. (pure genius to play it from 7am-8am every morning) and didn't start getting ready for work until 8am. 8AM! Pretty rock n roll right?

Everybody's doing it....

Happy Valentine's Day!

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Catherine Deneuve, Hillary Swank and Sir Bob Geldof have added their names...

If that isn't the most compelling reason to add your name to UNIFEM's Say No to Violence Against Women campaign, then I AM STUMPED!

www.saynotoviolence.org

Sorry

Happy Sorry Day everyone!

(OK, so we need to work on that greeting a bit...and isn't there already a Sorry Day? Does this day get dibs on the name now?)

So, this morning when I got to work at about 8.30am I hopped online to check out the business about the apology. I read a couple of articles and tried to find the complete speech on YouTube (no luck yet because the internet is a bit slow today). But what seemed to be coming through in reports is that Kevin Rudd was great and Brendan Nelson was...not so great.

The article in The Age didn't really explain what was so bad about Nelson's speech, and quoted some pretty innocuous excerpts that didn't seem to say much at all. Could people have been offended by his weird hair cut? It's possible, but perhaps an overreaction. I wondered "What could he have said that was so bad??" So I found the full text of Nelson's speech and....

...my jaw dropped.

Brendan, Brendan, Brendan...What were you thinking? Was there a mini-explosion inside your brain mid-speech? Yeah, maybe that's it. Maybe you didn't mean to make the most absurd speech in the history of the universe...Maybe?

And he just KEPT.ON.GOING....Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse he actually used the words "half-caste". I KNOW!

I would have loved to have been sitting in on that planning meeting:

Brendan: Hey guys, why don't I say "we're sorry" but then spend another 2,500 words explaining why it's not our fault!? Why don't I also bring up alcoholism and sexual assault. That's always a crowd pleaser at weddings!!

Sarah (if I was sitting in on the meeting): How about you just say sorry. Short and sweet?

Brendan: Orrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, I could also blame the state governments! They're Labor right? Sweeeeeet! This is going to be one hell of a speech! I'm going to piss on EVERYONE!

Sarah: Ummm, OK. Good luck with that. (we all know that in real life I wouldn't have said something that calm and mature, but it's my fantasy so let's leave it be).

***
Feel free to post a comment about the apology or send me an email telling me about the day. This is the second seriously exciting moment in politics I've missed in the last few months (no.1. the election), so keep me in the loop, yo!

An Album a Week...?

You might remember my New Year's Resolution to buy an album a week every week I'm in Indonesia. Well, it turns out that even awesome New Year's Resolutions are often not kept.

The thought of spending money on an album I couldn't share with anyone bummed me out (iTunes won't let me share). So in response I bought pirated CDs and copied enough music from a friend of mine to last me until 2010.

I bet you're wondering what kind of musical gems I can buy in remote, religiously conservative Aceh (The Acehnese practice Shari'a Islam). Well, it turns out that you can buy this:














Yep, the creepy Australian Christian mega-church, Hillsong has made it all the way to Aceh.

I would review this CD, but I'm pretty sure it's blasphemy to question the glory of the word of god sung by a woman in a red latex jacket. But nothing reminds me of the power of the lord more than a good rock-n-roll tune.

Another surprise find was Youth by Matisyahu who is known as the orthodox Jew who raps.







Wikipedia is pretty quick to clear up misconceptions about this guy's religious practices, but while someone in the world worries far too much about that, I will enjoy tracks like Fire of Heaven/Alter of Earth, Shalom/Saalam and Late Night in Zion.

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What's you're Six-word memoir? I am absolutely stumped on this!

...and now for a request

I'm finally getting around to printing some photos to put on my wall, so if anyone has a photo you think would look nice on my wall can you email it to me? I want to print them as big as possible, so the larger the file the better.

Train puppy: Check.

I trained the puppy in about 10 minutes. All it took was a bit of food and voila, the dog can sit. She's still a little bit psychotic at times, but now I can break her out of it because we have a command she understands. She's also figured out that biting isn't a game. She still tries to bite sometimes, and I think she's trying to convince me to reconsider my stance on biting (no really, it's SOOOOO much fun!) but the improvement is huge.

I would LOVE to get her a collar and lead so we can go walking (a guard dog wouldn't be a bad idea sometimes), but no one in town sells anything like dog supplies (the foreigner supermarket has just started stocking dog food though!) so I will wait until I go to Bangkok in a couple of weeks.

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Try Montage-a-Google!

Kopi Menace

In response to my puppy parenting dilemmas I got two suggestions on how to train a puppy:

1. Ask Lara (the puppy whisperer)
2. Tough love

The funny thing is, rather coincidentally, these are the only two things that I've tried already. As you know from earlier posts, Lara was visiting a couple of weeks ago. She suggested a couple of things and I've been diligently playing tug-of-war since. I have also been tough (ceasing play time when the biting gets too vigorous, and smacking on the nose) but the dog is getting progressively more psychotic.

Now I am in a catch-22. I think Kopi Manis probably needs more attention than she's getting (I'm at work from early morning to early evening), but she's now so bad at biting that even if I wanted to keep playing with her I have to go inside to save myself! As for the tough love, I have no qualms about being tough to a puppy, but she fights back!

At least my fears for Kopi when she is left to fend for herself (when my friend leaves Indonesia in 18 months time) have subsided. This puppy could take on the biggest, meanest dog ever and tear it to shreds.

Can a puppy have slow-onset rabies?

The ups and downs of raising a family

I'm quite busy at work these days, with quite a few "projects" to work on, and it's lots of fun. What concerns me though is that working in my office doesn't really provide great blogger fodder, and also doesn't allow for much time to go searching from something to post.

But keeping with that saying "if you want something done give it to a busy person", I am now more committed than ever to post frequently. But please be warned that I can aim for quantity, but whether it's quality is truly up to the gods to decide.

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I'm pretty sure that some of you who read this post have or have had puppies. As you might have heard, I'm puppy-sitting this month for my friend who decided to ride a motorbike around India.

When Kopi Manis (the dog) came to live at our house she was about 10 centimeters long and a little weakling. And then she had a growth spurt. She was always an excitable dog, but she seems to have gone a bit crazy and now she's actually big enough that her craziness causes problems.

For example:
1.She can pull over the rubbish bin and eat from it
2.When she bites it actually hurts and if I get a proper dog bite I have to get rabies injections. yuck.
3.Yesterday after Kak Ani washed the sheet from my bed Kopi Manis somehow pulled it off the washing line, dragged it into the garden (while it was raining) and then went to sleep on it. Cute: yes, good puppy behaviour: no.

Clara and I were very diligent puppy-sitters. We tried hard to train her and sometimes it seems to have paid off. But mostly she seems feral (which I guess is actually true considering that she was found in a garbage bin). Could this just be rebellion due to a sense of abandonment since Clara's departure?

Can anyone tell me how to train a puppy?