It’s been an interesting week. Monday and Wednesday were regular hectic days at work, with a nice event on Wednesday to attend in between all of the regular stuff. Tuesday I worked from home and got so much work accomplished – I wish I could work from home every day. I basically wrote 4000 words, which I could never accomplish in the office with all of the distractions, yay. In the evening I continued the momentum and wrote 2,500 words in my novel, yay. It’s near 60,000 words long, three quarters of the way to qualifying as a novel. I guess I could get there by the middle of September if I keep going at a modest pace. As I write, I keep getting good ideas about what I can do with the plot and events. Great, great, great. We also took Zen to see Superman Returns in the evening, which was nice. I’d review it here, but I think I already did that…
Thursday was an interesting day – I had a one-day business trip to Jakarta. I did lots of worrying about it in advance, preparing over S$200 worth of rupiah in cash, with a further S$200 as well, my credit cards, passport, ticket of course, and a briefcase for my magazines.
Woke up at 5:00, took a cab at 5:45, flight left at 7:30. I got to Jakarta airport agt 8:00 local t ime after a 90 minute trip (there’s one hour time difference betwen Jakarta and Singapore). The plane bounced a bit on the runway while landing, which was a bit scary, but we survived. The plane stopped about 100 metres away from the airbridge, so we got out and walked across the last bit of tarmac to get to the customs and stuff. Worked out well, got through customs quickly, found the Silverbird taxi stand, rented a VIP taxi for the day, and breezed into town. My five interviews went quite well, and it helped having a reliable driver to take me places. Traffic in the morning was okay, the weather was fine, the people weren’t pushy, just trying to get places. We drove by many nice monuments, also the embassy district and some good parks. I can say that Jakarta is a pretty nice city from the VIP taxi view of the place. By the end of the afternoon the traffic was total chaos, stop and go, it took me a long time to get places. I despaired at the thought of not making it in time from my fourth interview to my fifth interview. But as I was pulling into the place, I saw that my next interview was in a building just a vew houses over – I could walk there. That helped a lot, hooray!!
At the fifth place, I asked the lady I had an interview with “where is a good place to eat – I haven’t had lunch,” and she said “hey, let’s go have dinner at the executive club on the top floor.” I guess I’ve finally figured out how to get a free meal. The executive club was pretty nice, and the food was pretty OK too.
Took the cab to the airport. The traffic was really heavy for the first leg, which took 30 minutes, but then we passed a critical turnoff and it was easy sailing at 120 km/h. Got to the airport, sped through the check-in, and was way early. Had a Bintang beer and waited at the boarding gate for the airplane. Jakarta airport is very nice, with the boarding gates quite like pavilions in a beachside resort – dark lighting, lots of wood, high cielings, big windows, lots of greenery outside the window and a good feeling. I was burned out from a full day, and nothing to read anyway, so I doodled some strange stuff instead. Fun. The flight was nearly empty, I had a so-so meal and two more Bintan beers, and 90 minutes later we were in Singapore. Got there, took a cab, then got home at 1:45, took a shower, slept at 2:10. What a long day!!
Friday was your regular busy day, but in the evening met a banker who had come into town. Wanted to go to Harry’s on Boat Quay for the burgers and beer, but they were packed, so we ate at the Indian place next door. We were the only diners for a long time. Got home at 10:00, Zen stayed up intil 11:30, and then I could also go to sleep, exhausted.
Saturday was OK, Zen and I went downtown to his dental checkup, then went to see Naoko, went to Kinokuniya to check out the Amazing Frank Miller Collection box, volume 1, Sin City, only S$237. Ouch!! It also weighs about 10 kilos!!! Went home, just as we got there we saw Mitchan and Manachan. Good timing! They went downtown to do some shopping, then Zen and I napped. I slept for one hour, Zen slept for three. I did some computer, wrote 1000 words for work, then they came back and we all went for a swim. After the swim we all had pizza and beer. Naoko and Mitchan spent the whole evening chatting, will probably keep on chatting until after midnight. Just like last night – I was exhausted at midnight, but Naoko was watching TV. She says she’s so tired after work, but then stays up late anyway.
Here are some links for Afriranpo Youtube videos. These girls are supposedly the hottest thing in Osaka these days. Looks pretty fun – like eX-Girl, but guitar rock and not as irritating.
Limited Express (Has Gone) is one of those Osaka bands I was always interested in, but never got to see. They are a regular at Juso Fandango (or at least they were in the day…).
Here’s Fudge Tunnel, one of those good ’90s grindcore (or whatever) bands that nobody rever really cared much about. I once owned “Creep Diets.”
Here’s a great Godflesh video for the song “Mothra.”