After Beijing trip, my life seemed to be fast forwarded in full speed. I seemed to have lunch more on the table alone or with my friends discussing work. And I seemed to go home a lot more later than usual. It’s a perfect combination of rating calibration season and managing additional accounts as one of our colleague moved to another department. It’s exhausting and tiring. When I am home, I usually just hit the sack and collapsed ’til morning. And the stories repeated again on the next day.

The good thing is, during weekend I spent it full day with my family.

We had quite a busy day on Saturday. It started with me (re)doing math test in my dreamed business school. Due to better preparation this time, I think I managed ok. I only need to do more soul searching as to why do I want to do this a.k.a why do I want to add more stress into my almost manageable life? I need to search my soul better as I still have not find the answer until now.

After test, Pascal and hubby picked me up for coffee and cookies at Starbucks, before we picked up Mika from his Tae Kwon Do School. Guess who had the cookies crumbs all over the mouth? We have little cookie monster with us. We then had lunch in Ny. Suharti where we also spent sometimes to play around the fish pond and marginal play ground. Again, my cookie monster ate a full plate of rice with chicken. I wonder what happened with his diet program? It did not seem to work…

After that we went to PIM 2 to watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua. It was Pascal’s first time watching movie in the theatre so he was very excited. He kept on going up and down, inside and out and stood up on his chair. It was a bit frustrating and yet it was fun. But not for poor Mika who seemed embarrased with his little brother’s boisterous attitude. So we tried to manage Pascal’s endless energy by taking turn in taking him out and taking him in again. And the fact that we sat two rows from above made it quite tiring for a couple of mid 30s like us. Not to mention that we lost the continuation of the movie. Argh!!

And then we went for dinner at ChopStix for the hundredth times. We’ve been going there every week for months! The boys seemed never grow tired of it and I seriously thought that ChopStix should have give us discount or some sort of recognition as loyal customer!

Oh well, I guess what is important is that we were together. Nomatter what we eat. So we went home tired and contented. We slept right away, surrounded by the kids and I thought that I had never felt happier in my life like where I was on Saturday. I love you, boys.

Although I enjoyed every moment in the ancient city of Beijing, I was happy to finally be home again and be surrounded by people and things that are familiar to me. I missed my family like crazy and on top of everything, I missed my kids terribly. I was glad to be able to return healthily and have them in my arms again. We cuddling up in bed for quite sometimes, having them pressed their apple cheeks against mine, chatted to catch up where we have left and later on, they ‘helped’ me unpack my suitcase. Tearing it apart to find their own gift to be precise. Which I gladly let them do.

Other than bringing tons of souvenirs and pictures from trade battle in Silk Market, I also brought aching muscle as well. Result of rigorous walking including going down the stairs on fire drill. And my back was also ached from carrying lap top everywhere. I am thinking to buy a lighter lap top back pack. A Delsey perhaps. Red one. Ok, enough hint!

So on Saturday, I went for 1.5 massage in Bersih Sehat followed by 15 minutes sauna. It was so relaxing. The massager paid special attention to my back and…ehm…numb butt. I told her that I have been sitting for hours on my poor butt. The blood seemed to clogged there. Hihihi. I was then served by warm ginger milk and instantly felt better. On my way home, I stopped for a bowl of Bakso Atom for lunch. Ah my stomach felt so contented having the cheese meat balls after 6 days eating Chinese exotic cuisine. There’s nothing more delicious than your hometown cuisine. If you can consider meat balls as cuisine. I do.

And then in the afternoon, my Mom took me and the kids to my brother’s house. The newly wed just moved in. The house was literally empty. It was nice and small. Located in a hook. The grass had grown quite wildly and they need some basic stuff to live it properly. We ended up discussing the never ending shopping list. The joy of starting a new life. We did not spend much time there as the rain started pouring down quite heavily. And we were afraid that the road would be flooded. So we went home. And it was indeed raining heavily and the road did start to flood. Lucky we got home safely.

Mika then slept in my Mom’s house to keep her company. So I was left cuddling up with baby Pascal. Oh, he refused to be called baby. But I knew that he will always be a baby to me. No matter how old he will be. Not long after Pascal fell asleep I also started to feel drowsy. The rain was still pouring heavily outside brought the temperature to a nice degree. I finally able to sleep in my own bed and I am happy. Have a nice weekend everybody.

Last day meeting scheduled to end before lunch time. My friend and I planned to spend whole afternoon on Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and have Peking duck dinner. The day was beautiful, and albeit it was cold - the sky was so clear and we had sun shine. Such a lovely day for outdoor walk. So after a lavish lunch, we bid farewell to our Chinese colleagues and went separate ways.

We then realized that with the absence of our Singaporean colleague, my friend and I were facing challenge in understanding mandarin and being understood by Chinese. For direction, we had asked the Hotel people to write -in mandarin alphabets -places we wanted to visit. Plus, the Hotel provided us cards consist of favorite places to be visited. I thanked whoever has the brilliant idea.

So after going around changing some money, my friend and I went to the Forbidden City. It was truly beautiful and amazing. As I walked through the century old pavement going to the inner palace, my mind went to the ancient Emperors, Empress, soldiers, concubines or whoever walked through the same pattern. I tried to imagine how their life was spent behind these walls and beautiful building with such a huge country to govern. What did they feel, what was their thinking, are they afraid of the wars or are they so proud of them selves? My mind goes to their beautiful dresses, hair style and other things I used to saw in the movies or read in books. The place was so picturesque, it look as if it jumped out of a post card.

We visited almost all of the palaces including the concubines’ palaces where we read how they lived. To be honest, it was pretty degrading. Those poor girls were chosen when they were still 13 -17 years old. Being lined up for the Emperor to choose. Their pictures showed that they still had their chubby cheeks and innocent faces when they were brought to the palace for round of selection. It really moved my heart. And the fact that later on they were segregated through caste, and their food ransomed accordingly made me feel a bit sad. I am so glad that I did not born into one of them. If I did, I probably had tried so hard to be the least Emperor’s favorite so I would be expelled from the palace. Returned to my family. Funnily, the Emperor’s main concubine was not pretty at all. Her picture was so different than what I thought how a concubine should look. Her face even a bit round and she was a bit…ehm…fat! Oh well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Why on earth would I judge an Emperor like that. She must be so good in the art of love making. Ehm. Yup, pretty degrading I must say. Say No to polygamist.

We soon forgot our emotional moment as liberated women and happily took pictures here and there. And as the sun started to disappear, we took a cab to go to Tiananmen Square. The place was closing as we arrived there, so we did not manage to go inside the garden. Soldiers are everywhere. And I love soldiers. I like seeing men looking so ready for battle, so serious in their uniform and so masculinely manly. I felt adrenaline rush kicked in as I wanted…no, let me repeat, I am DYING to have my picture taken with them. My friend looked at me in annoyance. She seriously thought that I was such an embarrassment. Can you like something else? She asked me. Something that will not get us to jail for insulting China army? But I did not care. I was in Beijing and I wanted to have my picture taken with a red soldier. Period.

So, completely neglecting my friend who was cowarding behind, ready to dash out at first sign of trouble, I mustered my courage and approached one of them. My pick up line was asking for a direction of a Pecking Duck restaurant. He did not know. Then I asked him point blankly whether he would mind having a picture with me? He looked a bit frightful and as I studied him closely, I could see how young he was. Probably not more than 25. Being stationed in this cold weather. He said no. So I asked again, politer this time and with my best smile plastered on my face, whether it’s ok to take picture. He either really did not want to or did not understand my question, he still said no. At this time my friend was nearly burst with laughter and I was heart broken. I tried one more time with my sweetest pleading voice and he still said NO with frightened face. I could hear his thought “What is this crazy pink woman want from me?” and I could see my friend held back her laughter by pulling up her shawl to cover her mouth. She sounded like yelping in pain. Or had asthma attack. I finally gave up and walked away with my evil friend laughing her head off. Ah soldier, you broke my heart. Screw you.

So, to mend a broken heart, with the help from my Chinese colleague in talking to the taxi driver, we managed to find the Peking Duck Restaurant by our selves. The place was really beautiful. Again, the language was the difficulties. I kept on calling my Chinese colleague for translation. And for simple sentence, I kept on texting a good friend of mine who is a Chinese descendent. It’s funny to think that I never thought that this good friend of mine was a Chinese descendent although it was quite obvious for others. I have always been quite ‘blind’ towards other gender and race. I could talk easily to anybody who speak Indonesian or English regardless their gender or race. It never matter to me. However, this time I cursed this gift. Had I realized that, I would have asked him for sentences ever since I was in Indonesia. And now, I had to rely on his text and the way I said it. Fortunately it worked! So I thanked him profusely.

The Chinese waiter who attended us was beautiful girl. I impolitely admire her beauty with my friend in Indonesian language. She kept on talking to us and I kept on saying “Wo pu tung hanyu”. According to my good friend, it supposed to mean “I don’t speak Chinese.” At first she was smiling with her nice pouty lips and tried another word. Mesmerized by her beauty, I said the same thing over and over, “Wo pu tung hanyu.” And my friend whispered to me, “She spoke in English, you moron!” Ah! Why did not I realize that? She spoke English in Chinese accent and I did not catch it. I still thought that she spoke in Chinese! Alamak! I nearly fell off my chair holding back laughter. Dui bu qui, mei-mei. I did not mean to.

Other than that, the duck was devilishly finger-licking delicious! I had to stop. I always eat a lot when I am depressed. And being turn down by a Chinese soldier depressed me big time. Anyhow, I reminded my self that this trip supposed to be a knowledge gain trip, and not weight gain! We finally left that beautiful restaurant and went to Silk Market again!

This time, some of the seller recognize us. So they saved their sweet nothings for other buyer. We returned to the hotel tired and fulfilled. It was close to an orgasm. Minus the soldier, of course.

We flew back the day after when we, again, had another pit of laughter with my friend as we watched Mamma Mia on the plane. I started study math again for my examination so our laughter died down for a while. But it was a good trip indeed. Xie xie.

The End

We spent all morning in a very cheerful knowledge sharing meeting, meeting other HR fellows has always brought up battle stories. Tee hee.

In the afternoon we were taken to (Thank God) a normal Sezchuan Restaurant for lunch. This time, I truly could enjoy the food. I got to know my colleagues better too as we shared our age and weight (!!) around the table. I was happy to find that I was not the oldest nor the heaviest among the crowd. All of my Chinese colleagues are females. And they all seemed to be so slim and pretty. Their skin seemed so milky smooth and freckles free. I felt like ugly duckling among them. It was amazing to find that all of them actually older than they look. I had a good time with them with a lot of laughter and HR types jokes - whatever that means. We had another good meeting, fire drill, followed by another meeting until 6 pm. Questions pouring in like waterfall and I was flabbergasted by their good questions. My boss did not exaggerate when he said that China HR were smart women.

In the evening, my friend and I went to the Silk Market again. We are getting real good in bargaining hence we found it quite addicting to compete on how low could we negotiate. We managed to emptied our wallet traded by cute things and I started asking my friend to loan me some money. Embarrassing, I know. But what can I say? I was a slave of Chinese product.

To be continued

The training went on as planned. My mind was still divided between Indonesia and China. I prayed that calibration meeting run smoothly.

During the day, as opposed to cold sandwich, this time we were taken to what seemed to be famous Beijing restaurant. But the food was quite…ehm…too exotic for me. I barely could swallow it. Plus there was strange smell hanging in the air which I suspected was pork smell. As a Moslem, I do not eat pork and I grew up without it. I found the smell of it was sickening and the sight of it made me want to vomit. I felt nauseated throughout the meals but managed to look relax. After series of pork intestines and other exotic stuff, I was so glad when they brought what looks to me to be a plate of chocolate pudding.

But when I expressed my happiness (Is that chocolate pudding? Yay!), they were all laughing at me and asked me to guess what it actually was. I started to feel my stomach knotted again into another wave of panic attack. I knew what that was. It was blood. Frozen coagulated blood. In Indonesia, we called it marus. Shiny dark red blood served like pudding. We suppose to dip it into our soup. Will it dissolve in our soup? I dare not to ask nor try. Keeping the food inside my stomach has already a fight. Let alone being a vampire. No matter how much I love vampires, blood pudding was a liiiitle bit too much for simple girl like me. I was so happy when the lunch was finally over. Needless to say, I threw up right after we arrived back in the office. The rest of the afternoon went vividly with me battling hunger and sickness. I should have asked for bread and butter. I run to Starbucks to buy pastry at the first opportunity.

In the evening, we went to Silk Market and took revenge of the seller. Now come to think of it, the goods were varied more than Yashou Market and the prices were amazing! I managed to start buying things for my friends and family. And afterward, we went to normal restaurant and eat fried egg happily.

To be continued

We met our Asia Pacific colleagues and started the training right away. And to be honest, my mind was divided into another major thing happening in my country, which is the salary calibration meeting preparation. So I did my best to focus but I could not help my mind wondering whether everything is all right back home. Lunch consist of cold sandwich, but it was okay.

In the evening, we and our three other colleagues from Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam went to Yashou Market where we were successfully “robbed” by the local seller. We were so stupidly happy to be able to bargain from RMB 400 something to RMB 100, only to find that in three shops away the starting price was RMB 35! Aaaarghhh!

I felt like killing the Chinese lady! But anyway, we were then vow to our selves that we will start the negotiation from 10% of the original price. We came from the land of negotiation! We returned to the hotel with plan for vengeance. The sellers were looking for enemies. Robbing innocent visitors like us. But before that, we managed to finish a devilishly finger-licking delicious crispy fried duck! Tee hee.

To be continued

Do you know Forgetful Jones? A cartoon character in Sesame Street. Well, that’s the LEAST what my travel companion is. After loosing her passport, she still managed to give me few surprised. First, she have not prepare fiscal and airport tax money. She thought that she would withdraw it from the ATM machine in the airport with her new card WHICH HAS NOT YET ACTIVATED. So she ended up paying by her self. That’s forget # 1. Or ignorance to be precised. Unbelievable.

Forget # 2, she lost her ticket. As I walked confidently to the check in counter, I looked behind and was a little bit panic for not finding her. Apparently she was still outside, frantically search for ticket in her backpack. Fortunately, she has a thoughtful-well prepared-human behavior observer friend, which is me, who has anticipated that this would happen. I had printed an extra for her. I have also printed an extra hotel reservation as I was under the assumption that she would lost it as well. Fortunately she did not.

Forget # 3, she left her winter jacket at home. Oh well, there’s nothing I could do about it, could I? If she had frostbite, Company will still cover the medical cost. And she could always buy a coat using the winter clothes allowance provided by the Company. Yay! We have reason to shop!

Forget # 4, she left our souvenirs for our Beijing colleagues on our connecting flight! I was nearly fainted when I heard that. I just left her to the toilet, thus I forgot to remind her, and she left it underneath the seat. Fortunately the competent Cathay’s crew found it and fetched it for us when we about to board the plane in Hong Kong. Phiew…

So after couple of hours transit in Hong Kong, lots of laughter and jokes, we happily arrived in Beijing at 8 pm. Once we got off the plane, I could feel the cold air biting my skin. It was so cold and I still kept my winter jacket in the luggage, so we half running to the luggage belt, partially to get our winter coats as soon as possible, partially to keep our selves warm and stop our tooth from chattering.

We met the driver not long after. And soon I realized that they drive on the wrong side of the road in this country. I keep on getting the feeling that the other cars will hit me anytime soon. Fortunately we arrived safely in the hotel.

Around 10 pm, I was already in bed when I thought I heard the door bell ring. I peeped through the hole and nobody was outside. I returned to bed and thought that I must be dreaming. I heard the door bell again. I peeped again, still nobody. I started to feel foolish as well as frightened. This is not haunted hotel, is this? Could it be TV? And the door bell rang again. This time I jumped out of bed and opened the door so fast to catch whoever did that. I am not afraid of anything including Chinese spirits, ghosts or whoever. I probably would only faint. Still nobody. My heart has started pounding louder, and when I was about to close the door my friend appeared from nowhere! Apparently it was her. Press the bell and went away looking for emergency stairs (!!) like there was no better reason. She apparently forgot to bring toothpaste and afraid of melamine so she would like to borrow my toothpaste. Haiyaaa…can you not call before?? I felt like in a haunted motel. She was laughing her head off and so was I. This place was not haunted anyway…good night everybody…

To be continued

In my previous company, whenever I am travelled - most of the times I have always travelled alone. And the flight has always been a bit boring where I spent in either eating and watching movies or took sleeping pills so I could awake refresh and jetlag free in my destination. My days in foreign country typically spent by all day meetings and tried to fine tune with my foreign colleagues. And if I did not take leave during the journey, the travelling was normally limited to airport – hotel and office. And as you can imagine, I need to keep proper behavior at all hours. Boring.

Therefore, I was ecstatic when I knew that for my upcoming Beijing trip for training and meetings, I will be traveling with a friend who is a happy person by nature. She accompanied me to Offshore for 5 days before and it was hilarious and fun, so I was looking forward traveling with her again.

On the down side, this joyful friend also has weaknesses. She seemed to be followed by a series of bad luck and..ehm..was not quite good in preparation. Realizing that, I took over the leg work. From the itinerary, agenda and initiating formalities, I took the lead in the process so she was only need to piggy-ride me. Safe? No.

A series of unfortunate events seemed to persistently follow her. It begun when she (for God knows why) brought her passport to Bali and lost it there. I mean, Bali is domestic, isn’t it? Why on earth did she bring her passport there in the first place? To make it worst, she realized it only two weeks before we suppose to depart. Whereas to get the invitation letter from Beijing, our China Office will need three weeks to process. Therefore, I had prepared my self to travel alone (again).

Fortunately, due to rigorous praying and persistent calling, the invitation letter finished sooner than usual. So 4 days before we depart, she managed to get her visa sorted. So off we went to Beijing excitedly and I managed to capture some golden moments in following travel notes…

To be continued

Beware: Rambling and hyperbolic comments ahead. Anything wrote below should not be used against me in court, canteen nor office corridor.

It has been a busy week indeed. Let me try to summarize it for the sake of keeping up with the wonderful memories.

1 - 2 Nov - My brother’s wedding

That’s right. We finally arrived on the D-day. The day when I host a Pengajian for my brother. The day we went to his soon-to-be wife’s house for Malam Midodareni. The day of big hair, heavy make up, tight kebaya and good manner for 48 hours. It was really nerves wrecking. And it did took steel nerve to coup with Mom who freaked out for every single deviation from original plan that she orchestrated since 12 months a go. It’s like during Start Up period. When Project’s grand design failed to meet Operations reality.

It was a challenge as well to keep up with the protocols like…keep an eye with two rows of fake eye brows open. Let alone keeping BOTH eyes open. It’s killing me! I cursed the make up artist every single second.

But it was wonderful to see my youngest brother finally got married. I was happy to see him happy. And the kids…they behaved wonderfully. My little gentlemen. They were in such a good manner so both hubby and I could do our role peacefully. Hubby chaperoning (is there such a word?) my brother to the altar, and I lead the group carrying bananas and pineapples tower before my brother. Whatever that means.

Needless to say that it was drop dead tiring, and yet it was fun. And oh, I met my other brother’s girlfriend. Other brother’s girl friend. Not brother’s other girl friend. So don’t get confuse.

3 Nov - Interview with a Witch

I went for interview in my dreamed business school. The interviewer was an old lady who arrived 10 minutes late and was not impress with my psychological profile resulted from the psychometric magic test. Including my “assertiveness” in badgering the Receptionist demanding to know where the Interviewer was when the clock was ticking away from the promised hour. Well, I was not impress either with a guy who tried to get to know me better and interrogating me about my personal life, keeping me away from scrolling my beloved blackberry trying to catch up with the e-mails. I would rather badgering the Receptionist rather than having me badgered by a guy. The time for that was so over! And the pick up line was so un-innovative (is there such a word?).

As predicted, I was told that flunked the math and informed that I have to redo. I was also assessed as impatient and demanding, so this has caused concern on how would I blend in with the class. You would not want a demanding, impatient and slow in mental arithmetic person in your group, would you?

I was also questioned on my motivation. Why do you want to study again? Will you get promotion because of that? Rrr…No. Will you get salary increase? Rrrr…I would love to, but no. But you have two small children, you will have no time for them, you will not be able to see them sometimes including Saturday and Sunday, are you ready for that? Rrr…No.

The bottom line is: quite disheartening. I went into a soul searching period like: why on earth would I want to do this? I have a happy good life, why do I want to rock the boat? Ah that’s right, because I like it. Me. The restless person. Slow in math, nevertheless. So I will have few weeks to think, and redo the math, so lets see where my soul searching period take me.

4 Nov - Ehm!

My 35th birthday. What can I say more? Life has been wonderful and consistently to be series of surprises for me. Good job. Good husband. Lovely boys. I am grateful to be surrounded by family and good friends. It warmed my heart that some of them sent me heartfelt praying. The best one was “Hey girl, I hope you are getting richer!” Wow, really mind blowing compared to the standard happy birthday line…it lighten my gloomy heart.

And my client celebrated my birthday as well. We had cake in our goal review meeting. And coincidently, we had nice dinner. I am blessed.

5 - 7 Nov

I was engulfed in rating calibration process and presentation for my trip to Beijing next week. But I managed to watch Bond’s new movie Quantum of Solace. It was a bit boring and I was sleepy. But it’s good to be able to spend time with hubby. I seldom see him in awake condition lately. It’s a good change.

And now, I have packed my winter clothes. I am happy to be able to wear my pink overcoat again. And I will be traveling with a good friend who is merry and cheerful. But I am sad to leave my family for a week. So if you excuse me, let me spend my time with them. Tata!