A story I'll never forget

Fiona

Photo: article from The Sunday Times, Singapore

some things we enjoy.....

rain.... when we're under shelter..



ice-cream.....
Sweet potato with honey & chestnut from Gelato Ice-cream counter beside Meidi-ya in Liang Court is a must-eat!



buffet lunch.....




Fiona

Just for a smile

A neighbour hanging out Spongebob towel to dry on the corridor's wall. I thought it's quite funny. It put a smile on my face.

Fiona

Meeting the old & familiar

Returning home, all Brian and I wanted to do were eat, shop, meet. We had been re-tasting some well missed local food while we were here for nine days.. and there're more to go! Visiting places, mostly malls and I'm slowly getting sick of them and when I'm back in Palembang, I'll be missing them. What irony... I feel like a tourist in my homeland.

The most important and meaningful activity for me while we are here is to meet up both our families and friends. Before making the trip back, I was quite apprehensive of doing the whole socialising thing.. Imagine a hermit crab of 5 months losing its shell! So far I managed quite well, I guess..

I'm a new owner of a digi cam a few days ago. One to call my own with many thanks and love to Brian! So I've been madly taking pictures of loved ones and places. On a photo taking session today, I'm learning to use a manual SLR from our brudder who gave the cool gadget to us last Christmas.



Some pictures taken in/around Arab Street on my digi cam....







Fiona

Holiday in $ingapore

We will be back home in $ingapore for a 3 week break as Indonesia will be having its 10 day long Hari Raya Holidays beginning 20th Oct. This trip back home was somewhat unplanned & unexpected (Kinda like a bonus for us). We've initially planned to come home for a break only in January next year but hell yeah .... we're not complaining. :) In fact, we had only a day to prepare for the trip back home (imagine the mad rush to buy keropoks & batik gifts) as the flight back home to $ingapore is fully booked from this Sunday onwards. My...my.... the tourism board of $ingapore is sure doing their jobs well. :)

Mickey, Mambo & Gioia will be looked after by Theresia, our domestic helper together with Joko, one of our very helpful employee from the warehouse. Theresia will be taking the day shift while Joko will be taking the night shift. :) We will miss the doggies dearly.

One of the many things that me and Fiona will be doing back home would be meeting up with friends and raiding all the nice eateries for food that we miss so much. Little India, here we come !!! :)

I would expect myself to be drinking copious amount of beer & wine too. Alcohol buddies, you know who you are and how to get me (contactable on my $ingapore mobile) ... :)

Cheers
Brian Ong

If your're afraid of the dark...

a candle + flame is good for you. One thing I've to get used to living in the wild wild south of Sumatra is that streets are not very well lit... and when a blackout happens, like right now when I'm writing this (the blackout happened like two hours ago), I have to keep my cool and move about calmly to get to the nearest torchlight then to the candles.... Fun, ya... but when the fan/aircon is not working, it's not fun......

Survival skill #1:
When a blackout happens, lie down on the cool hard floor and stare into the ceiling.

Fiona

P.S. Brian and I will be returning to our homeland tomorrow. Because of the blackout!!

Mickey & Mambo volunteers to fight forest fires

The Haze is still around. We're only looking forward for the monsoon season to come and wash it all out. There's an article on the forest fires that I found on Channel News Asia's website saying that Indonesian officials are doing their best to douse the forest fires which are caused by the slash & burn techniques that Indonesian farmers are using to clear land for the planting of crops. Indonesia has already outlawed such land clearing methods but as usual, their enforcement of the law is weaken ... most likely by corruption. They are causing much misery to people not only in Indonesia but $ingapore, Malaysia & Thailand.

Mickey & Mambo are really fed up with breathing in soot and have decided to help the situation in any way they can. They've come up with a brillant idea that if every doggie would do their part and pee on the fire (instead of peeing on furnitures, lamp posts, pillars, plants ...etc), it may help douse the fire in a matter of days. Scientifc research have found dog pee to be very effective in dousing fires, given their high ammonia content.

Mickey & Mambo are calling out to every able bodied dog in the region to come forth and pee. Will this really help? We'll just have to wait and see.

Stay tuned. :)


Cheers
Brian Ong
Reporting on location at Palembang

Hazy days for the Sumatran dwellers

We have been living under a thick blanket of Sumatran haze for the past 2 weeks or so. Real bad. It even gets into the house. I can only imagine what it's like for people who do not have air conditioned rooms to hide into. As usual, it would be the poor who will be worst hit.

What me and Fiona do during hazy days like this is to just avoid walking on the streets. We'll just make a quick dash from the car to the office and a quick dash from the car to our home. Even the dogs prefer to stay in our room during this period. They know it's bad for them to be breathing in so much soot.

This haze may be a national mosquito fogging campaign ... Fiona suggested. Well, it does have its mosquito repelling benefits. But all the mosquitoes will try to hide indoors. :)

The good news is that it's beginning to subside here in Palembang. But there's no way of telling for sure (here in Indonesia) when it will be coming back again. I just hope this is not a yearly problem (But I have a lousy feeling that it is) .. well, we'll just have to live with it. Perhaps I'm going to buy a good hospital-quality air purifier for the home and office in the future.

A nice cold mug of Bintang Beer anybody?

Cheers
Brian Ong