My first ever cocktail party...

I enjoy the company of a nice cold cappucino in the weekend or after a long day in the office, alone for most of the time. The frequency is getting more intense in the past few weeks, considering the fact that I have spent several weekends working on credit applications. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a workaholic (how can I be a workaholic when I'm not even satisfied in my current job?) but more of an unreliable time manager that results into extra effort on the weekend. But, at the very least, I'm there to work on somewhat qualified applications with the accompany of happy rich teens and Jakarta's socialite that were laughing around with their notebooks opened up (which I'm very certain were used to navigate through Facebook, MySpace, and several similar websites).

One thing that I always do (while my laptop is booting) is to grab a few magazines just to warm my self up before I start doing whatever it is that I have to do. Unfortunately not all coffee shop have Business Week, The Economist, or Time magazine in their shelves. Probably, because their target market simply feels those magazines are just too boring for their "precious" leisure time. None the less, I have to adapt to the situation and therefore I pick those magazines that are a "must have" items for a coffee shop to be considered as a coffee shop, namely Indonesian Tatler, Registry, and all the lot. I don't really enjoy the news (if there's anything inside those magazines that can be classified as news) but I like to see that upper side of Jakarta spending their leisure time. It's interesting to see those 16 - 20 years old girls slide their way in a socialite party with no sense of worriness of life in their "heavily done" faces. Can't blame them, they were so luckily borned in a well "financially brought up" family. Of course, the photos are not always about them. I also notice those that have spent most of their life building up a career that they deserve to be proud of. Overall, the photos show ironic differences between the life on the street and life on the hip! but they all have one thing in common, they are all real life real facts of Jakarta. I personally feel that it is always fascinating to see all sides of Jakarta, either its the upper one or the lower one. The irony makes me laugh.

But all the stories of cocktail party and such suddenly came live for me on Tuesday, December 16th 2008. Influenced by all those glamorous photos in those magazines (you know precisely what kind of magazines I mean) and engulfed by the idea that this is my ticket to join the upper society of Jakarta, I jumped to the invitation and prepared myself for the event. I practiced my English, especially for those particular words that would make a man from Bronx look like a Wall Street guy, shaved (I don't regularly do this), prepared my suit, and all other supporting activities that I considered would be beneficial for the lovely event. Long story short, I was there.

Things started to work out when I saw a bar with free flow of beer (Heineken was the brand, my favourite). Intuitively, I went straight over there thinking that even if I can't expand my network tonight, at least I can catch a free flow of beer. Then several people started to gather around (expatriates all of them) in the bar and we started to introduced ourselves. I didn't start with the standard approach greetings such as: "Who do you work for?" or "What kind of business are you in?". Instead, I started by saying "this is my first networking party and I'm just tagging along with my friend". Somehow, I felt that these people had enough of dull conversation with the sales people and wanted simply to talk with an honest person with no business intention. I tried to be that person and we talked about politics (foreign and domestic), economic crisis, Bali, Thailand, and even to sex business. If what I did that night can be classified as an approach technic, then I would say it's quite an effective one for me.

The next question is, do I want to join another party just like this one in the future? I think there will be those occasions that I am obliged to join, but I personally feel that once every one or two months won't harm me at all. So, am I a socialite now? No, I am not a socialite. I don't wear a Raoul shirt with Hermes tie and covered with Giorgio Armani suit. I'm still the same guy that shops only on discount and no more than twice every year. It just happen that I guess I have found a new way to spend my extra time...

Photos of the Elderly Home

A TRIP TO THE ELDERLY...

"Old soldiers never die, they simply fade away." Gen. McArthur



I found myself in a very unlikely event last Saturday, a charity visit to the elderly home in bandengan area Jakarta. Unlikely I said do to my "anti-social" and "egoistic" mixture that has run through my blood for many years. Charity is not what I do best, especially when it is being done under the knowledge of the people around me. But, a certain chain of event (that happened outside my knowledge, and surely, without my consent) led to this "incident" that I assure you, do not happened very often in my life.

It was kinda hard to accept the fact that an elderly home was located in such a densely populated area. Bandengan is the kind of area that I always categorize as "the other face of Jakarta". It's about 1,5 hours ride from Kuningan (my office) in a busy normal day rush hour time. The area was heavily populated, with a very high number of Chinese descendent living there. The road was very crowded (but that's old news in Jakarta) with "potentially flooded" area along the way and small rivers that connect to the sea. If you're a big fan of pork gourmet, this area might be alligible to be classified as heaven. But what amazed me the most is the number of "Kelenteng" or shrine that I found along the road to the elderly home. It was almost as easy as finding a Mosque in majority part of Jakarta. The Chinese people here are very much accustomed to the way of life back in the Mainland. Most of the youngsters were 2nd or 3rd generation in Indonesia, thus the cultural bond (that includes language, ceremonies, and even up to movie preference) with Chinese tradition is quite strong. I was actually hoping to see some lion dance, but none occured at that time. But the left over of a celebration was clearly seen, fire crackers and all the lot. I my self is a Chinese descendent from my mom, but God knows how many generations have my family lived in Indonesia. None of my Chinese relatives speak chinese, or visiting shrine on Chinese New Year day. It's like we are Chinese on our faces only and nothing more. No emotional attachment, no known blood relation with the mainland people, and our only knowledge about the Chinese culture is as much as what the CCTV9 and Metro TV broadcasted.

I've always thought that our good Grandpa and Grandma would prefer a life in the country away from all the hazard and hassle of a metropolitan city like Jakarta. Bandengan is not really an accountable example of a peacefull neighbourhood. Like what I wrote previously, it's another side of Jakarta that is different, and sometimes darker, compare to a more familiar areas that I know in the west and southern side of Jakarta. The location of the elderly home is next to a river that is filled with garbage. The garbage was so dense that I didn't see the water running at all! What's ironic about it is te fact the this area is always flooded during the raining season due to the same problem year after year, garbage pile up in the river. But everyone seems to be Ok with that fact, they might even consider it as nothing more than an annual regularity that alway come in January - March. It's an amazing example of human stupidity mixed with ignorance and seeded with a bit of comfort zone. The elderly home was easily reachable, and quite comfortable to park the cars. Of course there was schedule that has to be followed, and I don't want to bother those of you who are reading withh all the details. But, when I saw their eyes, I wondered, what made them ended up in that house? Was it their own free will? Their children? Relatives? What is actully their motives? When I saw them I could see they all bare their own stories to tell. Most of them were borned in the 30s and they have seen all the 5 presidents of Indonesia rose to power, not to mention the Japs and Dutch. One grandpa sit with me and we talked for quite some time about his life, his wife, his children, his job, and most importantly his view of the world. In the end, the old grandpa told me, all he cared about is his roommate, an 83 years old man that used to servve together with him in the army. But that's not all, he said to me about a phrase that I have not heard for a long time... "Old soldiers never die, they simply fade away."

It made me thinking about how I'm going to spend the rest of my life and how, life in the end, is a simple matter of standing by for the people next to you for those are the ones that will support you.

In the end of the day, the Saturday social trip was worth the effort. I saw ther other sides of life that I rarely accountered.