It’s been several months now since me and my wife applying for housing loan, well actually it was before we were married, about 5 months ago… First the bank turned down the application because my wife is a contract worker at one of United Nation’s organisation, then, it was just this afternoon, i got two calls from two different banks, verifying my job, and both really spin my head off… The first bank rep called me stated that :

Because I own 20 percent of the company, I can’t apply as employee, therefore i have to reapply as self employment, meaning additional paperworks, like company legal papers, balance sheets and company account reports, for whick i never really get in touch with, because somebody else taken care of them all.

The bank need to survey the company, as in physical office… this is another glitch for me as a virtual worker. the company does have a small office space, but it is, well, a small office space.. a place to the programmers & designers to work, which never really occupied by more than 3 persons at a time. Sigh…

The other bank rep called me with more twist :

Since the company is small, the analyst will put suspicion on my salary amount.. Whaatt ??!!… May as well pull the trigger straight to my head then… I just don’t get the logic. I have my payroll slip, all my bank account reports, which I may say pretty much in sync. Then they still can’t believe that I can actually make that much money ? Double sigh..

Oh well… I’m thinking of calling these all off now, because of all strange procedures and it just take too loooooooong… Virtual workers rulezzz !! .. or is it ?

I went out to find new shirts yesterday, and I can’t get anything fit to my current neck size … sigh…

I noticed that I don’t have well defined neck anymore, and oh, is that second chin I have now ? Worst thing is body size still change that much, shoulder and such, but I can’t button up the neck part which means I can’t wear tie properly… oh well, maybe this is the dawn of custom made clothing era for me…

No, it is not an automotive club name… It’s about all those people who ride motorbikes in the crowded and overpopulated Jakarta roads. And it’s been a month now since my father-in-law-to-be lend me an automatic transmission scooter. Quite a slick vehicle I must say.. I don’t need to change gear or fiddle around with transmission pedal and clutch, simply pull the accelerator to run faster or pull the break lever to slow down and stop, everything is done using both hands, freeing my feet from elaborate footwork, except to support the vehicle when stoping at traffic lights.

Anyhoo… I need to readjust to Jakarta traffic, considering I usually on a car’s driver seat or being a passenger in bigger vehicles like bus or somebody else’s car. I used to be cursing at motorcyclist for their carelessness… now I feel like everybody was cursing at me when I feel I’m doing something stupid along the way.

What I fear most are not buses, cars, or any other big vehicles… I really fear most are… other motorcyclist. Seems like they really don’t use rear view mirror that much, and they seems to have drone telepathic ability and some sort of swarm logic )

Hmm… I hope I can catch up, not in negative way though, such as zig-zag-ing through queues of cars, but more in awareness when some other bikers doing weird maneuvers…

Long Live Jakarta Jam !!

Life is strange.

I knew it is for a long time, but never really notice it until it hit me big time, this time in a good way. I always have this strong feeling about when my life will change drastically, won’t call it premonition but close enough… i just knew all along that when i hit my mid thirties, things will change. and so it is.

I was in a very great mess at work when i get this email from a friend of mine in Singapore, notify me that he might have a potential client for me. And then this person he refered me to called long distance directly to my mobile, and that was the moment my life changes drastically. Sufficient to say, it wasn’t only changing my career, but also my perspective on people, and life a large.

Changing perspective on people ? how so ? I’m talking about my own people here, Indonesian people. We are such a big nation, in term of populations, but never a nation with big heart. Seriously. In my 10 years plus working experiences, it never hit me like this time, it’s a simple enlightenment, that i felt most appreciated when i was out of this country. This nation’s inferiority syndrome has widespread and become a cultural disease, and that , my friend, is more dangerous than HIV, avian flu or whatever plague you can think of. I believe strongly that when people start having inferiority syndrome, the symptom will be the opposite behavior. They will intimidate you, acting like they are bigger, bossing around, while they actually realize that deep in their heart they have nothing. nada. big zero. And worst thing is, they will shit on you just because they can, so beware.

So what this has anything to do with life being strange ? a lot. Now I understand why people act like something they are not. And most importantly, I realized i shouldn’t let other people speak for me when it comes to my own well being. It’s not that i can’t trust people, but it’s just difficult to find good people with good motivation to collaborate. I always believe that this kind of people really exist, I just found only very few of them. And most of them are not Indonesian.

Long story short, my strong feeling about my own life proven to be right. 10 months ago I never would’ve thought that all these could happen, but is does happen now. I got a sweet renewable contract from a Singapore company, with Singapore salary standard while I still stationed here in Jakarta. Only part of it is about the money, but most of it are the level of appreciation I can get for my skill and my willingness to work. Not long ago when i worked for local company, i got shit for the same amount of works and dedication.

On my other facet of life, I met this girl, well, again, because i actually known her 14 years ago in my college days. And then everything was just a breeze, we just bought a house ( I amazed myself because of this ) … and … well, it just feels great