Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Brownies with the puppies



1 week in Jakarta

23 April 2008

It has been a while since I updated my blog. I am just going to do a quick up date:
April 10th, My in-laws dog, brownies, just gave birth to 5 puppies, 1 died, 4 survived, 2 black and 2 brown.
April 13 to 19, I spend the whole week in Jakarta since my sisters were away in China.
Lots of interesting things happened:

· American teachers got into a big brawl at school
· Brought my resto staffs to Dufan on Monday, ended we only played 6 rides and it rained the whole day…. All in all, the trip was definitely dampen by the rain.
· Order overseas books and they got me the wrong books
· The unprofessional company that we served cancelled 3 classes at the last minute and cost us 75 million deals.
· One of the Indian teachers that I knew of, finally managed to get pregnant after 4 years of trial. I am glad that she is finally pregnant since Indian, Hindu people too, values women from whether the women are capable of giving birth or not.
· Got a high speed high tech CPU for my husband for his birthday ( got to make him earn more money faster) ; -).

Looking back, my life in Bandung might be uneventful and boring at times but in comparison to the stress that I had in Jakarta for one week. I can confidently say that Bandung people will definitely live longer and healthier compared to those in Jakarta. Now, I begin to appreciate my husband effort of “ not to make” me work , other than serving his meals and clothing. I supposed I should not complain since he does mean well.

23rd-28th April 2008 – my sisters will be doing their exhibition at the MKG and this will be the first time that I did not get to support their marketing effort. I felt really guilty about not helping them. I guess that is one of the things that I have to sacrifice once I got married.
Not living with in-laws has always been a plus for me. I got to do things my way.

Soon, I will be joining my in laws business in the bag. However, I am hesitant in getting into the business right now because my father-in-law is very conservative and he changed his mind every other day.

If you did it right, he would be saying “ Untung aja! ( just by luck)” if I failed ; it would be “ Hm…graduate from overseas, so what… still stupid ( bego)… can’t even get things right”. This is the time where I am so glad that my parents are supportive of what we did, no matter whether it is successful or failure. Thus, right now I still have 2 weeks to consider whether I should meddle with family business or not. Like what people say, “ Once you get your feet wet, it would be easy to dry it again”

One other good news is to hear my best friend, Vebby is pregnant too. This is the 4th pregnancy I heard in April. Danny ( my engagement photographer man who got married on the same day as me), Dinky ( the Indian teacher), vebby ( my best friend), yulie ( my good friend’s sister). All the babies are fighting to get into this world… Hope we can preserve it as it is and not making it worse by more pollution and contamination.

23rd April, Johan my relatives just sms me today and surprised me by informing me that he has returned for good to Indonesia for the Palm tree business. Still remember when we were kids, we used to be the ‘wedding couple’ and now both of us are married and he already has two kids… How time flies. Suddenly, it hit on me that I have been married for almost 3 months now.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Housewife's Budgeting.....

One of the most important lesson that I have to learn as soon as I go into the 3rd month of my marriage. The difference of accounting for bachelors and accounting for household. I become more conscious of my spending as now I can not depend on My mom to supply my household spending anymore. Now, one begins to appreciate what one used to have even more.

Just sharing with my hubby's wife the other day,

She said: "My friend is amazing. A household of 3 adults and 2 young children only need Rp. 600.000/month for food expense puchased at the wet market."

Imagine what is going on in my mind: Rp. 600.000/ 30 days = Rp.20.000/day, Rp.20.000/ 3 meals/ 5 people = Rp. 1333.30/ person / meal.... Well, She is amazing... my mind wonders what does she cook everyday... tofu, Tempe and egg? with egg price climbing up to 10.300/kg and cooking oil hiking up... one wonders... how does she manage?

That is lesson number 1 : My challenge of the month ; Use budget of Rp. 600.000 for the month for the 2 of us ( Handy and I )

If successful : award will be dining out with Handy with a budget of Rp. 200.000/ meal. I am aiming already at the japanese restaurant in Jakarta or Thai Palace in Bandung