Owner: Finally Woken URL:http://anitacarmencita.blogspot.com Join Date: Wed, 05 Dec 2007 02:25:46 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: A look into Scotland from a stranger's eyes. An Indonesian stranded in Aberdeen and has to deal with Scottish people, accent, weather (most of the time), food, and football. Then she looks at Indonesia from 12,000 km away. It's a culture shock! Site statistics:Click here
Spring? What Spring? 2008-04-01 17:42:37 On Sunday we had to adjust our clock back to 6 hours behind Indonesia. Spring
has come, apparently. Everybody's mood has lifted when the week has started with a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the sky was blue, the flowers have been starting to reappear, and the sale has begun. Today when I looked outside the window, I saw what I have seen yesterday, so I bravely put on a short-sleeves top - the first time in 5 months, probably - and a jacket. I was so looking forward to put my normal (read: tank top, jeans, and jeweled sandals) clothes back on, rather than having to think about the whole colour arrangement against gloves, scarf, coat, and boots. But the digital thermometer showed 14.5 degree (Celsius). That wasn't convincing, so I changed my jacket with a slig
Friends Abroad 2008-04-04 05:25:52 Last night I found out that Bugilsnews displays Indonesian Expatriates Forum (IEF) link and its widget on their site. With a few thousands of subscribers (I was told they had 10,000 readers a couple of years a go and it was when Bugils Group hasn't been crazily expanding - to how many bars now, five, six? - like nowadays, so the number might be bigger now), having the link there will hopefully spread the news about IEF. Despite what people think - especially our Indonesian friends and family back home - that life is glorious, the future is bright, and everything is nothing but sweet love if we live abroad, being away from home is always a lonely (and most of the times, shocking) journey. Only people who are in our shoes, or have experienced the same thing would understand what we are going Read more:Friends
Spring? What Spring? (2) 2008-04-07 02:56:51 It's mid April. It's supposed to be spring. Summer should be around the corner. With a high spirit we headed down to Edinburgh. We planned to visit several places. The sun was glowing even with the dark cloud above us. But then God thought it would be funny to blow some cold.Back in Aberdeen, where snow wasn't present, I was dropped off to do some shopping. After two hours it was started to rain so I was ready to go home. I found out they changed the bus route, I didn't know which bus I should take, no warning whatsoever. Number 11 was just off. I waited for another bus, but it's Sunday and they turned up every 30 minutes and I already was soaking wet. I decided to walk home with two big bags, and after 5 minutes the rain turned into windy snow. The wet brown bag was torn apart and I had t Read more:Spring
Haggis, Black Pudding, White Pudding 2008-04-09 01:14:07 Haggis, a traditional Scottish dish, is - according to Wikipedia - made of the following ingredients: sheep's heart, liver and lungs, minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for about three hours. Today the dish is prepared in a casing rather than an actual stomach. MacSween (picture, right) sells cooked haggis, and we only need to remove it from the outer plastic bag, wrap in foil and re-heat it.Traditionally served with neeps and tatties (cooked turnips and potatoes), haggis is always present on Burns Supper, when Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns, is commemorated. In Jakarta, you can find it in St. Andrews Ball. I can't remember seeing it in Highland Gathering, but check the chief's tent, probably they ha Read more:Black
, Pudding
, White
On Fitna, Bloggers vs. Hackers, and Computer Illiterate MPs 2008-04-12 07:37:51 Fitna is a short film by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, which explores Qur'anic motivation for terrorism and Islam in the Netherlands (explanatory stolen from Wikipedia). On April 7, Indonesia has blocked access to YouTube and a couple of other websites such as MySpace and Multiply. The Minister of Information and Communications Muhammad Nuh has passed a bill that forces 146 ISP's in Indonesia to block access to YouTube. Kompas has confirmed that the reason for the block is Youtube's refusal to remove Fitna from their servers.After a week of public debates and overwhelming protests, Nuh has apologised for ordering the blocking of Youtube, Multiply and a few other sites which host the video Fitna, and the virtual community in Indonesia can relax, sit back, and exhale for a while. Ther Read more:Hackers
, Computer
, Illiterate
Shannon Matthews: Bizarre Case 2008-04-11 06:28:19 Shannon Matthews
is only 9 years old when she failed to return home from swimming trip on February 19. Her disappearance didn't hit the news as big as Madeline McCann. Missing Madeline gets full coverages from media and attracts celebrities ' attention (on her 100th day missing, both Sunderland and Tottehnham Hotspur teams walked on to the pitch in white T-shirts bearing Madeleine's photograph and the words "Don't You Forget About Me", and the energetic campaign mounted by the McCanns to find their daughter has raised millions in donations and reward money and involved celebrities like David Beckham and Richard Branson). But the news of Shannon's disappearance could be found somewhere on the tiny corner of the newspapers. No celebrity jumped to help. No football team players wear the pictu Read more:Shannon
, Bizarre
Without Prejudice 2008-04-16 08:04:02 For the past two days I attended a settlement course in a very gorgeous hotel. It's rather late, considering I have been here since last June and know most of the absolute essentials, but it's still worth to attend, and I got to see new people and had free lunches, yay! The course is done to help people settling nicely in a host country. Unsettling employees and partners could jeopardize their posting, their unhappiness threaten their productivities because they are worried about other matters rather than their jobs, and the company could loose their valuable resources. So 2 days course in a very nice hotel with free lunches is worth spent.For those who just come to a new place, or even those who repatriate back after spending years in other countries, this course is very helpful. In fact Read more:Prejudice
Great Scottish Castles (1) 2008-04-20 13:11:09 Scotland's turbulent history has left an enduring mark on the landscape in shape of the many castles, fortresses and tower houses that pepper the countryside. Some - such as Edinburgh or Stirling - rank amongst Europe's most impressive structures while other less grand examples provide a stark insight into darker times. The first time I landed in Scotland, one of my goals was to visit every single castle. That until I found a book that lists them all. There are thousands castles scattered in Scotland! Even to visit all castles in Aberdeen and Grampian area will take years, unless if I do it every day. Maybe.In the mean time, I set my goal to be a simpler one: visit all famous castles first. Here are 5 of them: Edinburgh Castle, EdinburghScotland's most important and famous castle. I can't Read more:Great
, Scottish
Frustrating 2008-04-27 06:29:39 A combination of a scheduler who pays a great attention to details and a natural worrier would be the worst. It's me. Me. Me. I am such a pain in the butt to those who think that birds are chirping and the world is smiling and everything is perfect even though your life is not planned. I would stand by their door and tell them that it's going to rain and they're better to take the umbrella and next time read the weather forecast before taking too many tank tops.And if it's my event, it's double worry and double attention to details. It's frustrating to see everyone takes everything very easy, while I'm sitting down and drafting schedule for everybody on hour basis. Only to a reply that they haven't even booked the flight, or they don't know what to do - but as long as beer and girls are in
Train Ramblings: How Well do You Actually Know About Your Own Country? 2008-04-28 19:14:18 I'm writing this in a moving train that is taking us back to Aberdeen. Yes, the train provides a free wi-fi service, which helps me to endure the 7 hours journey back from London. To think that most shopping malls in Jakarta still charge their customers for providing wi-fi service is ridiculous, especially when you have to buy different wi-fi cards on different shops. Sitting down in Coffee Club might not guarantee that the wi-fi cards I buy from Starbucks would work although they are in the same mall. Starbucks Plaza Indonesia's wi-fi card wouldn't work at the one on Plaza Senayan. Go to Cazbar or Eastern Promise for a free wi-fi. No frills. You just have to buy a glass of beer and smile at the gorgeous barmaids to obtain the password, and they will let you sit with your computer on. Lond Read more:Train
, Actually
, Country
Greedy Green 2008-04-30 03:27:52 I read in Tasa's that Whole Food Market encourages its customers to bring their own bags by taking 5 cents to 10 cents off the bill for each. The same policy will be applied to Marks & Spencer's customers soon.clipped from news.bbc.co.ukMarks and Spencer is to begin charging its food shoppers for carrier bags.Customers will have to pay 5p for plastic bags, with the money raised going to an environmental charity.Chief executive Sir Stuart Rose said the company wanted to "make it easy for our customers to do their bit to help the environment".Campaigners say plastic bags damage the environment. Some 13bn are given free to UK shoppers every year, and they take an estimated 1,000 years to decay.As much as I support the being green spirit, I don't think that these supermarkets are playing f Read more:Green
Indonesian Expatriates Forum: Progress Update (2) 2008-05-03 13:45:36 Indonesian ExpatriatesForum
(IEF), created in January 2008, has been doing very good. Bugilsnews puts IEF's widget which shows the list of articles we have published on their website (they also put a link to my personal blog there - big thanks to Bart and the team - perhaps because I constantly promote Bugil's, Cazbar and EP!), and with their perpetually growing number of readers and loyal fans, having IEF's link on their site will certainly boost IEF's popularity! Several bloggers also have IEF link on their blogs, like Jakartass (the most popular English blog according to Indonesia Matters), and my blogbuddies like Rima and Therry.IEF also has gathered almost 50 blogs of Indonesian expats and returned expats around the world. (I will elaborate the term 'returned expat' later in a differ Read more:Indonesian
, Update
Surabaya Johnny 2008-05-06 06:19:37 (Uncle) Nick, who's technically not my uncle but more like uncle-in-law, is a huge opera fan. He could fly to Switzerland or Germany for the weekend just to watch the performance. His and Alison's house is full of opera singers and shows posters from all over the world.One night Alison asked Nick to show me one performance called SurabayaJohnny
. The song has been sung in several languages: I have seen it in English, German, and Italian that night. It's also performed by many artists, including Bette Midler.I am most fascinated by the title Surabaya Johnny. Surabaya, as you surely know, is the capital city of East Java, Indonesia. And just like any other cities in Indonesia, it still carries Dutch influence almost in every corner. But the song - a famous song, apparently - is composed by a
Spoiled Local-Expatriates 2008-05-08 05:33:43 The Writer just wrote about spoiled expatriates, "those who come from developed country and get a job in developing country and live like a king/queen". With salary which is unbelievably higher than a local standard - mostly due to ridiculous exchange rates and tax regulations - and lots of allowances, they soon embrace a lavish lifestyle with maids, gardeners, security guards, and so on. I couldn't deny that many expats are living like that. Being expats means they have to sacrifice many things: their life back home, their friends and family, their comfortable surrounding, to go to a foreign place thousands miles away from home with different customs, food, culture, temperature, and work attitudes. Many of them are reluctant to be posted overseas, especially if they have children to thin Read more:Spoiled
, Local
, Expatriates
Teenage Sex and Fame 2008-05-13 01:31:06 Last month on our journey back from London, a 7-years-old girl was sitting next to me restlessly, and in between her non-stop chatting to her mum who looked desperately could use some extra hours of sleeping and her tiny fingers which were busy pressing her pink Playstation Portable to kill whatever enemy she fought against, she was singing. Not the Barney purple dinosaur song or any song a normal
Domestic God(dess) 2008-05-14 15:36:50 Cooking is something - I can say this with confident - that many Indonesians don't master. Generally we are spoiled rotten by our family who can afford maids (or sometimes maid and cook), and by the widely available good and cheap food on every corner in Indonesia. Because of this, some people never visit their own kitchen, or have more than one (one for display, one for pantry, and one for the m Read more:Domestic
Cranachan Is... 2008-05-17 05:27:12 ... Another Scottish dessert. Traditionally served during harvest time in summer but now can be found everywhere, it is made from a mixture of whipped cream (lots of it), whiskey, honey and fresh raspberries topped with toasted oatmeal. The dessert is very light, not too sweet, beautiful to serve, easy to make, and a mixture of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries may be used, all
I Love Indonesia, but... 2008-05-22 13:20:42 ... I don't really know my country that well, apparently. Stuart's friends are coming for two weeks and even though I've been to Bali a thousand times I haven't explored the island further than Seminyak area. Then the will be spending some time in Jakarta. But except visiting our bars (Eastern Promises and Cazbar), I have absolutely no idea where to take them - I have to ask my friends who, despi Read more:Indonesia
Mitsubishi is A Scotsman 2008-05-22 13:16:26 Everyone in Indonesia is familiar with Japan and its products, especially in automotive industry. Toyota, Honda, and Mitsubishi
are the three brands which dominate the streets in Indonesia.But surprise, surprise! Do you know that Mitsubishi is founded by a Scotsman? His name is Thomas Blake Glover. He was born in 1838 in Fraserburgh, (the same town where Stuart's father now resides), the largest s
Summer Theme 2008-05-25 16:50:16 An ex-colleague is coming to pursue his master's degree here, and was quite gutted when I told him to prepare some light layers, even though today is so-called summer. Summer
here is not something like in tropical countries or in Australia, where we can walk around with shorts, tank tops, and open-toe sandals, and get some sunburn. Well, Stuart got some sunburn once when he played golf 3 weeks a g Read more:Theme
Blast From the Past 2008-05-28 08:08:49 Social networking websites certainly are on the top of the game, everybody is hooked up and cannot live without it. There has been discussion in many industries about how they could tap into this new trend and get benefits out of it. It is so powerful that HSBC had to cancel their plans to scrap interest-free overdrafts for graduate students, after thousands of them had set up a 'wall' in Facebook Read more:Blast
Stick To Your Script 2008-05-30 02:30:12 Maybe Sharon Stone thinks she could be another Susan Sarandon. Maybe she thinks she is intelligent enough to write her own script. Maybe she just doesn't realize how powerful China and its market is.clipped from film.guardian.co.ukSharon Stone is facing a ban on the showing of her films in China after suggesting the recent earthquake that killed up to 67,000 people may have been the result of "ba Read more:Stick
Feel Phenomenal 2008-06-03 04:58:35 Scottish version of the famous Rudyard Kipling's "If" poem:If you can bounce in six inch heels all nightAnd still walk home in your bare feetIf you can keep two passions burning brightAnd see there`s still some romance in defeatIf you can hit a foreign beach without a tanOr brave the howling sleet in just a shirtIf you know you are easily the better manWhen side by side with suits in just a skirtI
The World's First Pregnant Man 2008-06-08 15:15:40 The world's first pregnant man, is preparing himself for the birth of his first baby, which is due in four weeks. Thomas Beatie was born female, named Tracy Lagondino, but had gender reassignment surgery and is now legally male and married to a woman. However he keeps his ovaries and womb so he could have children. Brave Thomas has caused worldwide controversy over the "reverse" pregnancy, which Read more:World
, First
One More Beer, Please 2008-06-08 11:17:23 Apparently the sentence above is really important and must be translated into 50 languages. Forget how to say please and thank you, don't bother to learn to ask for a direction in a local lingo, as long as you can ask for one more beer in a strange place, you'd be fine, and you'd charm the local girls. I have checked its translation to Indonesian, and found it incorrect (although people still can Read more:Please
Chick-Lit Overload 2008-06-12 02:51:50 Here's a question. Why do most of the chick-lit novels have their main characters working either as an author, a journalist, or as an editor in book publishing industry? Remember Candace Bushnell's Carrie Bradshaw (a columnist), or Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones (an editor) or Sophie Kinsella's Becky Bloomwood (a journalist), and of course, Lauren Weisberger's Andrea Sachs who worked at Vogue as
Your Comments Worth A Million (And You Don't Know It!) 2008-06-13 02:54:26 This is a wake up call to all bloggers. Somebody - or many people - out there, is/are listening, or to be precise, reading, whatever you say everywhere in the virtual world. It doesn't matter whether it's trashy, unintelligent, boring, or lame. It doesn't matter whether you pour your heart out in your own blog, in a discussion forum, or in social networking websites a.k.a Facebook or MyScape. The Read more:Comments
, Worth
Travel With Dignity 2008-06-14 14:52:04 I've been putting the packing activity off forever until the last minute. I have piled everything I know I am taking home in the bedroom corner for days, but every time I wanted to start, I just couldn't be bothered. Plus I've got zillion things to do in the last minute, as usual. This comes from someone who claims that she's organized. D'oh. But finally I've done it. I finished it a couple of hou Read more:Travel
Certain Friendships Don't Last Forever (2) 2008-06-17 04:51:28 Sometimes when you're sleep deprived, you start imagining things and seeing stars before your eyes. That's what I thought the first time I saw them.On the way back to Indonesia I stopped over in Singapore to see my best friend from high school, who's heavily pregnant and ready to explode any day now. I landed in Singapore at 6 AM and headed for shower room on the second floor in attempt of keeping Read more:Forever
, Last Forever
Keeping It Private 2008-06-30 16:09:04 Is this a growing trend among Indonesian bloggers? I have found out that at least three of my blogbuddies have decided to restrict their blogs, which means only invited users can read them. They're quite popular and one of them has been listed consistently on the top 100 in IndonesiaMatters. I asked two of them, and they gave me similar answers: taking a break, reflecting, attending new important Read more:Private
Recommend Site To A Friend
