Dropped the ball

I've haven't updated for a week even though there has been plenty of adventure. I'll give a quick round-up and catch up on details over the next few days.

1. Greg is visiting this week. We met in Medan, stayed in the fanciest hotel I've ever stayed in (for around $60 per room per night), and eventually made it to Bukit Lawang to see orang utans. It was hard to drag ourselves away from the fancy hotel breakfast and the fancy chairs in the lobby and the fancy blankets they had (in the deluxe suite we were upgraded to because we wanted twin beds)....
2. but the orang utans made it worth the effort. We only stayed one night and set out early in the morning of our second day for a 4-5 hour hike. We saw a peacock that defied gravity and lots of orang utans...then bolted back to Medan to catch a plane to Banda Aceh...
   
3. ...That was booked for the wrong night. When we checked in for flight they kindly let us know that our tickets were for the previous night and that there were no more seats on the last flight for the evening. So we went back to the fancy hotel who booked the tickets for us and let them know of our dilemma. After a bit of fussing about we had seats on a flight the following day and a free room for the night.
   
4. My wisdom tooth is infected! I have taken a steady stream of panadol for about a week. Is that dangerous?
   
5. Standing in the rain waiting for a taxi in Medan, I was helping a nice man move a hardwood bench that had tipped over but he dropped it on my finger and my fingernail is now gross. But it seems like it won't fall off, so worst nightmare no.1 averted.
6. Going to KL again this weekend, for yet another visa run...
   

MJ's Right of Reply

Hahaha, MJ just responded with this...

Wow, I’m famous! But what about the seriousness of that mosquito situation – I get the feeling that no one is taking me seriously!

Postcards from my momma getting published

Do you remember that I posted a funny email from MJ on a website called Postcards From Yo Momma a while back?

Here's the original blog post about it: Things That Make Me Laugh

Well, turns out they liked MJ's email a lot and plan to include it in a book they are publishing called...

"Love, Mom: Poignant, Goofy, Brilliant Maternal Messages from the Digital World" (due for release in April 2009).

Funny, huh?

I just sent an email to my brothers and sisters about it so went to the website to find the original post to show them. MJ's email got one comment, and it was a cracker.

overreacting much? lol
sounds JUST like my mother.
all mosquitoes carry debilitating diseases in her eyes.
this is my fav email yet. lol

The funniest part about this, I think, is that when I saw that website for the first time I thought "I bet I could find a funny email from MJ for this" so I opened the most recent email from her, surely enough it was funny, and I sent it in. Apparently MJ, your everyday material can make Americans laugh. Imagine if I offered them your A-game?!

I also think it's funny that this person with an overreacting mother thinks that MJ is like that too (for the record, MJ just keeps up the appearance of being paranoid to make me feel loved).

P.S. Here is the email they liked so much:

itches

What are you doing getting bitten by mosquitoes?!! You will get MALARIA - and i will have to start worrying about that instead of typhoid. Maybe you have got dengue fever even! Are the drugs working? Are you still alive?

Aceh conflict is old news

I just stumbled across an old article from The Age a year and a half before the tsunami at a time of renewed fighting between the Indonesian military and GAM (June 2003). Check out the great picture.

It's always interesting to try to imagine this now mostly peaceful place just five years ago. All the evidence and the stories should make it easy, but it's not. Reading a newspaper story is a bit different. I can't really articulate why though. I guess that's the beauty of a newspaper.

Can I remember reading articles like this in 2003? I have a vague recollection but not really. Perhaps if I'd known what my future held I would have paid a little more attention.

Read the article here: Aceh Media Plan in Chaos

Weddings and other nice things

I spent way too much time alone in my house on Sunday. Today I am jumping around the place at the sight of real live people.

Saturday, however, was packed full of people including these very cute girls at my becak driver's brother's wedding. You may recall my becak driver Rijal from my last post. He is the one with the pineapple shrub.
















I also went to lunch at my friend's house. He lives at the beach so a heap of us went for the afternoon to eat his mum's cooking and enjoy the sea breeze. It was just my kind of party.

Friend Jess just sent me a bunch of photos from K-Rudd day and I found this one that I think is very amusing.














Someone looking like this and standing so close to the PM for no reason is probably the kind of thing his security are looking out for. What a weirdo.

Friday night's the night not to party

It's Friday night and I should be out of the office but I haven't posted much this week and I am barely keeping up my posting targets, so I shall post and run.

Many people like going out on Friday after work and letting off steam, but I want nothing more than to go home. I have a feeling that a lot of people feel this way but go out because of pressure from their colleagues/friends. Who else agrees with me?

So, as of today I have 11 weeks until the end of my contract. 11 weeks doesn't sound like much time, especially considering how fast a single week goes by. Sometimes I think a week is an odd period for us to plan our lives by. I'm all for the two days off in the middle, but you often set aside a week to do something, or expect to have achieved a significant amount between Monday and Friday, but Monday arrives and before you know it, it's Friday already. Not enough time to have really crossed many tasks off your to do list. I know this seems like an odd statement, and a bit like an old person/unoriginal person thing to say ("oh how time flies"), but if some people can argue that we shouldn't count by tens* I think we can reconsider the week as well.

Right in the middle of that 11 weeks we have more events planned than for the rest of the year, and they are the kind of events that require more planning than usual. It's going to be a pretty crazy few weeks.

I haven't posted a photo in a while, so here are two:

This is a photo taken from my desk. I have a nice view, and it's especially great at the time of day that this photo was taken. As the goes down there is the call to prayer and everything turns a bit magical. I have gone on about Aceh doing the 6-7pm slot better than anywhere I've ever lived, but no research has gone into that claim. In fact, I think the whole world looks pretty good as the sun goes down.














This is a photo of my regular becak driver Rijal and a pineapple tree that made me laugh. It's tiny and the pineapple is huge. Hilarious no?



















*The link I should have given about the Duodecimal system is here. Please follow the other link, it's the best thing you will ever read on the internet...ever. If you don't read it you are a heathen

Waiting for workshop

I'm just waiting in the driveway of my office to go to another day of a workshop we're running, and have nothing specific to post, but I need to post to keep up progress towards my posting goal for 2008.

There is a cat sitting next to me. Its name is Pusspah. It walked into the office this morning so my colleague who lives here at the office decided to name it. He is now considered the cat's papa. There are a million stray cats everywhere, and they often enough wander into a house with an open door. I don't know what sets this cat apart from those to be given a name. This cat is particularly ugly too, and not even a little kitten. I suspect Pusspah won't still be part of the family by this afternoon.

The mornings are very fresh and cool at the moment, but unfortunately all I want to do is sleep through them. My friend Jess and I planned an early morning beach trip for last Sunday but I was feeling sick on Saturday night so didn't set the alarm and woke up at 9am. I then made the epic journey from my bed to the couch and stayed there, dozing until about 1pm. So Jess and I went into town and ate burgers for lunch instead.

Other news, the tap/shower broke off the wall in my bathroom the other day and water and dirt gushed out. It was magically repaired when I got home, and even better, I had a whole new tap/shower that is AMAZING.

OK time to go...