Happy birthday granddad! You would have been 88 today.

There is no day passing by without me thinking of you.

And no day without me regretting that I never told you how much I loved you.

As we plan to visit Paris and already booked the flights, we started to look for a hotel, a nice one in St. German des Pres which is our favorite area. While Rudi's favorite hotel costs 285 EUR room only per night, we were looking for other options, mainly hotels in the area of course.

One hundred viewed websites later, we set our sight on Hotel d'Orsay, a nice Parisian hotel located behind Musee d'Orsay, a stone throw away from St. German des Pres. So we booked it just now and got the reservation confirmed for weekend rate inclusive of breakfast for 145 EUR.

For Paris' standard of hotels in this area, I think this price is acceptable. Most hotels in Paris offers room-only rate, without breakfast which is around 15 EUR per person per day. Well this hotel offers breakfast for 13 EUR. But our rate is already inclusive of breakfast so the room actually costs 'only' 119 EUR. And considering the hotel's location, this is a good one. Other hotels we have seen start their offer at 150 EUR room only, if not 190.

So St. Germain des Pres here we come!

Colonoscopy is the endoscopic examination of the large colon and the distal part of the small bowel with a CCD camera or a fiber optic camera on a flexible tube passed through the anus. It may provide a visual diagnosis (e.g. ulceration, polyps) and grants the opportunity for biopsy or removal of suspected lesions.

I just had a colonoscopy yesterday. A procedure which every doctor said is a routine one with thousands of people undergo this every day. Yet I had my fear and I was anxious, especially to know the outcome.

Our travel plans until June took shape. We have made some arrangements for three 'excursions' now. Not that I do not have any leave days anymore, but we try to do it on weekends or long weekends combining one or two public holidays.

I have 26 leave days a year which is an absolute dream for Indonesian standard of merely 12 days. Of those 26 this year, I have consumed 8. Yes, eight days are already gone, six for the trip to Indonesia in January and another two I owed from last September's suprise birthday trip to Lyon. That leaves 18 days only this year. And yes, ONLY 18 days.

I plan to take another 3 weeks this year end for Indonesia (my mom is turning 60 in November) which are 15 days, so that leaves me with 3 days from now until November. Three days only! What can you do with three days? Nothing! I can not travel anywhere for a lengthy period. No summer holiday for me!

PS. And Rudi still has 37 leave days this year. Thirty seven! That is 30 from this year, and 7 from last year or 2007! And I have only 18???? Come on! *sigh*

My dearest friends Rakhmad Aji and Fajar are sort of my partners in crime in the fields of my interests. That includes foreign languages, geography and travelling. While Fajar and I have been to Saigon, Rakhmad has not. And now he plans to go during Easter weekend. So he asked Fajar and me for recommendations, what to see and what to do.

While writing the email about Saigon, after seven minutes or so I realized what a long email it became. Half way through it, I decided that I should put it as an entry in my journal, opting to just copy paste it, rather than writing the whole thing from scratch again. Thus, pardon the Indonesian-English mix, this is just how we speak to eachother, on top of Malay, Singlish and very broken French *grins*

What was intended to be a short answer about Reunification Palace, War Remnants Museum and Mekong Delta day tour turned out to be an elaborative explanation about the sprawling city and its culinary delights!

We were impressed by the friendliness of the people (something rare in Germany these days), their sincerity and broad smiles, their children's innocence and generosity despite the ubiquitous poverty and the rich cuisine this fascinating land has.

My colleagues and I came to the office this morning with news that one of our ships had been seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Hope all crew members are safe on board!

CNN - Pirates Thursday hijacked a German-owned tanker in the Gulf of Aden, the waterway between Africa and the Middle East which has become one of the world's most dangerous shipping lanes.

The MV Longchamp was seized by seven pirates early in the morning, said a spokesman for the ship's owner, Bernhard Schulte Ship Management Company, of Hamburg, Germany.

The company received a phone call from the ship's captain which was "literally around three seconds.He said they'd been seized by pirates, that no one was injured, no dead ... and then clac, the phone went dead,'" said the spokesman, who did not give his name.

He said the company has heard nothing from the pirates themselves and had no information on how the vessel had been seized.

The coalition of countries patrolling the sea lanes in response to the outbreak of piracy there was not involved in the incident, said Lt. Nathan Christensen, a public affairs officer for the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, which is based in the region.

He said he did not know if the coalition had received a distress call.

The Longchamp carries a a crew of 12 Filipinos and one Indonesian, Christensen said.

The tanker is carrying the chemical vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), the owner's spokesman said.

It is departure day minus 4 today.

I am glad I am flying home this time around to spend time with my family. But my excitement of going home is somehow overshadowed by my grandfather's condition at the moment.

Words came on Saturday last week that my grandfather is very ill at the hospital and is now in the intensive care unit. He was admitted to the hospital for breathing problems, only to find out later that his lungs are filled with fluid due to disfunctionality of his heart. He was in a coma for while, was better yesterday but today it is downhill again for him.

At his age of 87, recovery does not come speedy at all. He became conscious on Sunday, was taken off the respirator/ventilator or whatever that machine is called yesterday, was able to communicate and said he wanted to go home. And just when we thought things were going to the right direction, today his condition worsened and a lung infection attacked. That machine then had to be put on again.

My prayers are of course for his recovery but first and foremost that he is not in pain.

Please let him be with us at home this Christmas.

Nine days and dozens of suckling pigs later, I am overwhelmed with the high workload this position has.

I worked today until 19.45! Almost the whole afternoon was spent for checking/waiting/rechecking/ calling/confirming orders for tomorrow in Buenos Aires and Houston; and think of the time difference so when we are closing here in Germany, they are just opening on their side of the globe.

May be also because it is Christmas time so vessels would like to secure their provisions before the holiday starts, may be not. But for me it is better to be extremely busy at work, than to be extremely bored having nothing to do.

This industry really never stops to surprise me.

*Hey, it is 8 working days more to go before our holiday starts!!!*

Oh crap! Today was my predecessor's last day at work. From tomorrow on I have to do everything by myself, just hope I do not forget anything which will cause famine on board the vessel.

I did not realize what I got my myself into, did I?

And so I passed my first day the new position! Well, it was not entirely new for me since 1) I did purchasing before, though it was with another software and 2) I was sitting with the purchasing colleague, whom I am replacing, for some hours two days in a row before I decided to take the job.

I think it will be a job without any minute to kill. I mean, I will have enough things to do everyday to get pass the day. The whole day today I was sitting with her and did some paperworks, ordered some provisions, sent out requests for quotations to suppliers, etc. And suddenly it was lunch time and afterwards it was time to go home.

What I still do not know is if the job will bore me. I refrain from making any comments about it at the moment. Simply because I do not have any. Hear that sound of me knocking on the woods three times?

Well, who can tell after only one day in the job anyway? And any job will always have its downsides, right? Shipping industry? It is something that never ceases to surprise me LOL.

I remember it was a good feeling when I spoke to the HR person and heard the-job-is-yours-if-you-want-it sentence from him.

So I will just relax, enjoy my new tasks and absorb as much as possible!

I have been pondering long enough whether I want to buy a new camera or not. Long enough since about a year ago. Everytime I go to an electronic store, I always take time to go to the camera section to at least fondle the camera I want. 

Last August in Jakarta I thought of buying one, but then changed my mind for one or another reason. Yes, I am a hobby-photographer. Yes, I take heaps of pics especially when I am travelling, sometimes too many.

I honestly never look at other brands besides Canon. Never try other brands either. Call me stubborn, but I trust the brand and do not want to waste my time (and money!) trying other brands, you name it: Nikon, Kodak, Olympus, etc.

So when I want a new camera, I look no farther than Canon. My first one was a simple, compact digital camera of 2MP, my second one is something between compact and SLR camera, 5MP. I decided if I should want a third one, it has to be an SLR camera.

It comes with a price, of course.

While looking at some brochures of an office equipment store, I saw Canon EOS 450D with 18-55mm lens for 499 Euros. I thought I'd compare the price with another store's website. The second store has the same price for that camera. But they have another interesting offer.

Canon EOS 1000D with two (!) lenses 18-55 AND 55-200, and Canon camera bag for the same price of 499 Euros. So I thought we'd go to the store and check it out coz I really think it is a very good offer with the two lenses. Lenses here are bloody expensive!

I told Rüdiger that most probably the camera is sold out since this offer is two days old already, for sure many people have taken advantage of it. We still gave it chance and I told him that if that camera was meant for me, then it is there.

You know what?

It was one of the fastest big purchases I have ever made! They still have enough stock of the camera, nice! I took advantage of the offer and I think I made quite some savings.

So now I am an SLR digital camera owner and can not wait to try it out! The only downside is that it is heavy, with the bag it is big and if I want to drag the two lenses everywhere it is even heavier.

Whatever!

I have a new toy to play with now.

It is my Christmas present to myself LOL.

Finally as of Monday, December 1 I will do something else in the company!

I have been Team Assistant until today, 11 months already (how time flies!), assisting my colleagues in the fleet with all sorts of support one can possibly imagine. I had my 3-month 'stint' doing purchasing for the vessels, after only less than one month in the job and even in the shipping industry.

I appreciated the company's trusting gesture at that time. It was actually a double-job for the price of one since I obviously did not have any salary raise during those 3 months. But I could not say no because I was only less than one month in the company, it would not have made a good impression had I said no. I did receive a raise in May which started retroactively as of April. Another small gesture that I appreciate, rather than looking at how small the raise was.

And now I am ready to do something else within the company, that is doing purchasing but this time not for technical matters (which at that time stressed me out) but for provisions. The good thing is that at least I know what I am ordering LOL.

But this time around I got a quite substantial pay raise! So I think it is not bad at all for someone who is a newcomer in shipping and got two salary hikes within 8 months. 

Still I have to cry everytime I receive my salary slip, just by looking at how much it was deducted for the bloody income tax! You will not believe how much they deduct it.

Just when I posted the entry yesterday about one being childlessly happy, great news came today that MY SISTER IS PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am inevitably happy for her and her husband. Now THAT was fast! They got married in August and now she is already in the fifth week! You guys did not waste any time, did you?

My mom is for sure over the moon!

Sitting together on our livingroom's petit sofa, I was torturing our laptop's keyboard writing an email to a friend. Rüdiger was lounging comfortably with his legs stretched on my lap, when I saw with the corner of my left eye that he was staring at me. I looked back at him and asked why he stared at me.

''Ich bin sehr glücklich mit Dir,'' he said while looking at me dearly.

''I am very happy with you'' it means.

*Four weeks to go until we fly home to Jakarta!!! Sounds like still weeks away, but it will pass so fast. We started shopping today for the trip (read: presents for my sister) and got most of the things she wants. She is always the one with long wishlist everytime I fly home, compared to my mom who almost has no wishlist. Plus everything we bought for ourselves, I did not dare to count how much we spent today, after spending six hours from one store to another.*

Beth J. Harpaz,  The Associated Press   |  Mon, 11/17/2008 2:23 PM  |  Travel

Places that presidents call home often become major tourist attractions, from estates at Mount Vernon and Monticello, to Hodgenville, Ky., where Abe Lincoln's log cabin once stood, to Bill Clinton's boyhood home in Hope, Ark.

Flowers bloom in front of the building where President-elect Barack Obama's grandmother called home, in Honolulu. Places that U.S. presidents have called home often become major tourist attractions, from estates at Mount Vernon and Monticello, to Hodgenville, Ky., where Abe Lincoln's log cabin once stood. But if you want to see all the places connected to Obama's life story, you'd need to visit three countries, five time zones and six states. (AP/Alex Brandon)

*Published in The Jakarta Post*

Just a little update that the invitation for the wedding of the year arrived on Thursday alias only 2 days before the D-day and it took longer to reach us because the zip code was wrong!

We were invited actually to the marriage and not to the wedding. Don't you think it will be far too ''crowded'' to share your marriage with 2000 other people? I think so. I'd quote the late Princess of Wales who told Martin Bashir that there were three of us in this marriage and its a bit crowded.

Anyway the matrimony has obviously taken place since I did not hear otherwise like runaway bride, runaway groom or other catastrophal incidents during the wedding. No words from my mom or aunt yet and I have not asked them either how it went.

I am sure it was a very grand celebration.

I had a bad conscience for being so lazy to do any sport despite the fact that I am member of a sport club where I did mostly aerobic and co. The monthly membership fee of 8.25 EUR is actually nothing compared to other clubs charging 50 EUR per month. But still I was too lazy to go.

So since last weekend I started swimming in a swim hall. I always like swimming so I thought why not and tried this hall.

For 1.5 hours one has to pay 5.40 EUR but I got myself a so-called Multi Card which is sort of a prepaid card worth 75 EUR and entitles me to 18% discount of the rate (so I pay only 4.43 EUR for 1.5 hours). The amount will then be deducted from the card and I have to just top it up when the balance is close to game-over.

Last weekend was my first time there so I asked the lady at the entrance where the changing room is. She said, just go down the stairs and turn left. I did. I saw a sign that says Damen or ladies in English. Behind the sign there was a door clearly marked Sauna. I thot it is probably the same changing room for those who want to swim and those who want sauna.

Big mistake.

I entered the changing room which I thought only for ladies, only to find out there were men there. The changing room was also not that separated so I could hear men talking in the next chamber and saw them walking through freely with only a small towel covering what is necessary to be concealed.

Hmmm... my suspicion grew and I decided to have a look around. May be, just may be I was not wrong and somehow I can exit to the swimming pool from this area. No chance. There was no way out to the pool. No sign whatsoever. 

The room was just so warm with steam coming out from the various sauna chambers and I did not know what to do with all those naked men walking around me! Nobody told me anything either that I was in the wrong room or something. Seemed they did not mind women's presence while they were naked.

So I decided to come out to where I came in before. And voila, just beside that Damen sign is the very changing room I was looking for. A normal changing room for ladies without naked men around me. I immediately grabbed my things from the locker and moved next door with sighs of relief!

It was just uncomfortable seeing those naked men. I just pretended they were not there at all!

*I managed to swim 8 laps x 50 meters last weekend and today I doubled that to 16 laps. Not bad for someone who has been out of sport since July LOL. Now I am just tired from swimming.*

I have been watching Brothers & Sisters DVDs that a colleague lent me a couple of weeks ago. The family drama series were on German television for some times early this year and I was a loyal audience. So when she offered to lend me the first and second season DVDs, I immediately jumped out and raised my hand to say yes!

Seeing the series actually does remind me of my own family.