Farewell, Adelene @ Tung Lok Signature

I knew Adelene when I moved to Alexandra office. She is one of the most resourceful people in the office – there is almost nothing she doesn’t know or can’t do. Thanks to her gathering invitations, I got to know more people and finally settled down nicely in the office :)

October was her last month working in our office. We didn’t get a chance to have farewell lunch before; so decided to have a small one on our own last Wednesday. It’s always nice to eat with her – she knows just what to order! We had a nice long filling lunch, it almost felt like Friday (plus my boss wasn’t around that day :p) I have to drag myself back to work.

Adelene and us!

Table full of food @.@

Erlin's Fav #3: Broccoli

Erlin's Fav #2: Crispy Pork with Sauce

Erlin's Fav #1: Mustard Bun!! Love it!

Even though I rarely met her anymore since I moved to MBC, we still kept in touch with lunches some time. Adelene, I wish you all the best on your new assignment! This time it’s at ORQ! Whooa!

Till the next time we meet!
ED

Tanjung Balai – Medan Train Experience

I have no complain with the taxi that I usually took to commute between Medan – Tanjung Balai. Yet, I heard more and more about how convenient the train is and wanted to give it a try. Mum and dad agreed so off we go with train this time :D

The ticket price is Rp. 47,000 (for Air Con) and Rp 14,000 (without Air Con) for one-way Tanjung Balai – Medan ride. For senior citizen (mum and dad), they got additional 20% discount. People usually go for the non air-con, as it’s quite breezy anyway. It’s $1.5 for the 180km journey. How cheap was that? For first timer, I decided to go for the air-con seat.

My Train Ticket! Can book any day in advance!

It’s good to know that there is no “agent” in this kind of thing :) The government indeed makes it quite tough for agent - You need to present your IC to buy the ticket and your name is printed in the ticket. The only other distributor is IndoMaret, which charged additional Rp 7,500 for the service.

On the travel day itself, I was wondering how are we going to go from home to the train station There are 3 of us + 4 big bags and the only transport we have is… trishaw. Well, never underestimate the power of trishaw.

Trishaw - all luggages loaded. After this, I sat beside mum and dad sat behind the rider

We started at 7.10am and reached the train station at 7.20am. They verified the ticket and IC before allowing us to enter (it’s definitely more complicated than MRT) the seat number is written in the ticket, but passengers weren’t very picky about it. Our designated seats was beside the toilet, but we managed to get a seat near the center :p The train left at 7.30am sharp with a familiar bell and horn sounds.

The Ticketing Counter - No crowd at all! Surprising considering it's a public holiday!

The Check-In Counter

The various stops from Tanjung Balai to Medan!

Air Con Cabin - Basically a normal cabin with Air-con installed separately. Gave me a gloomy and damp feeling which I don't feel comfortable with. The Non Air Con cabin was actually newer, I heard.

The first stop! I believe it's Kisaran. It's raining that day so things are blurry

Me looking like a farmer. Wasn't feeling well and mum didn't allow me to take the hat off at all

I think I took a train before like 10 years, and one of the thing I remember was the train food :p I’m glad that it’s still existing. I didn’t got to eat most of the stuff for serious hygiene issue with the food, but it’s quite fun to see all the different kind of things sold – Pecel, fried chicken, lemang, rice, pop mie, coffee, steamed peanuts, satay, etc - all looked really good, and even more tempting with cheap price (average of Rp5,000 for any item). I have to keep reminding myself about the good food awaits at Medan to keep me composed.

Auntie selling Pecel, nyums.

Happened to see the Qurban in action at one of the stop. The scene was actually not for kids, I would say.

The travel went smooth and dad was pretty convinced that we’d arrived on time (11.50am). We informed sis about it and she was all ready to pick us up. Alas, for no reason, the train stopped at the last station for freaking 2 hours! And there was no explanation given at all. The last station is only 6 mins away from Medan. If we know it would stop for so long, we would have asked sis to come and picked us up. A lot of people was quite frustrated, but dad was still able to make joke out of it, saying that we stretched our money for another 2 hours of free seat and Air Con =_=’ I was too hungry to laugh at that time.

Medan Train Station!

My verdict? I have no regret trying out the train experience, but maybe will stick with taxi for my next trip :p

Tut, Tut,
ED

Accomplished: To learn the Country Name and Capital City in the world

It’s one of the 3 New Year resolutions I made this year, and few weeks ago I really certain I’m going to missed it. How not? It’s the fourth quarter of the year and I was hardly through Asia and Europe countries.

Thanks to the 10 days leave and the nutrition I had in hometown, I finally managed to memorize the 203 countries – 183 sovereign countries and 20 non-sovereign administered territories. Oh yes that's right!

All ready with the globe, the map, and the book

Funnily, from all the weird names like Ljubljana, Reykjavik, and Yamoussoukro, the three capitals I had to repeat the most are the simple less than 9 letters: Lebanon – Beirut, Macedonia – Skopje, and Sudan – Khartoum.

It’s lots of reciting, rewriting, and frustration. But it was fun once the whole things were concluded. Like I achieved a new level of knowledge, even though I should have learnt this 15 years ago (blush). It makes me wonder - is my brain getting stiff now after 4 years of working? (Or I just never good at this…) Will I be able to survive hitting the book again if I ever decide to continue study?

For now I’m just happy that I concluded the resolution. Dangerous resolution! Have to think twice before making similar thing next year! I believe half the list will be gone from my brain by end of this year, but well… at least I knew once upon my life!

Maybe the best way to learn is to visit each countries :p
ED

Wedding Reception – Tanjung Balai Style

Yesterday, mum asked me to accompany her to her friend’s son wedding. I haven’t really gone to weddings in my own hometown. There are only two restaurants around, and as far as I know, none of them are air-conditioned.

I decided to give it a try. Anyway I have gone all the way to India to experience Indian wedding – not fair that I didn’t experience my own hometown wedding. Mum did alert me in advance not to over expect, it’s the decent kind of wedding and not to be compared with city wedding.

We went there at 7.30pm by trishaw – the journey was 2 mins. We reached there, gave the red pockets, greeted the family, and then went in to the “ballroom” to our seat.

The Stage! With natural Air Con

Our Table

At 8.00pm sharp, the MC said hi to the guests and welcomed the family. There was two couple from dancing group who danced to welcome the groom and bride as well. Even though they were out of tune for more than half the dance, at least their make-up was decent. Once the groom and bride were on stage and kissed, the dinner started at 8.10pm.

The entrance of the family!

The dance to welcome the groom and bride

... and the groom and bride!

This is where the experience differed. In the usual wedding I attend, we’ll then be waiting for the dishes to arrive one by one. For this, all the dishes arrived together!!! And no one was shy to start. I needed to fight for some food and ended up with some carrot and gravy =_=’ And guess what. The dishes ended within 15mins and people started to leave at 8.30pm :| I’m quite surprised. It’s the shortest wedding dinner I ever attended!

The all-in-one dishes

Toast and Bye Thank You at the same time!

It was 9pm when I reached back home and I told mum that I could take second round. It’s quite an eye opener after all – It’s a really short simple wedding, but I guess it still captured all the important elements in a wedding dinner :)

Wish the couple happily ever after!
ED

Indonesia Movie Industry These Days...

The kind of movies I saw in local newspaper throughout this week:

• Pacarku Kuntilanak KEMBAR 
• Tali Pocong Perawan 2 
• Bangkitnya Suster Gepeng 
• Rumah Kentang

Snapshot of what's in theatre this week

Indonesia has so many good-looking actresses, why must all of them act as ghosts? :( Saddening. But who knows. Maybe those are top-notch ghost movies. But can’t they do other movies as well? There is literally no other local production except for the ghost movies. Oh well.

…To scare to watch any of those,
ED

I got my new Electronic IC!

Got my new IC today! Well, the whole experience is surprisingly really hassle free for me.

Front - Look exactly the same with the previous card except the blurry pic

Back - Look the same as well, except maybe the hologram?

When I went to collect the card, the guy just put the card on a reader and he can access all the information about me in the computer. Something like ez-link card I guess! No swiping required.

There has been a warning in every photocopy shop asking people NOT to laminate the card as it will tamper the electronic chip inside ^^; (on very unrelated note, just wondering if ez-link card will work if laminated)

Admiring the card,
ED

Tiny Tower – Dream Job Mission Accomplished

Tiny Tower is one of the few games that can be nicely played offline. While waiting for my queue in BCA (2 hours to move from Queue number 6 to 10 can you believe it) I managed to get the full dream jobs for all the residents! Yay! Mission accomplished.

315 Dream Jobs for 315 Residents :D

Now I need to find something else to do ^^;
ED

Dinner at Jimbaran Raya Seafood, Kisaran

After they closed shop on Sunday afternoon, aunt and uncle invited me for a ride to Kisaran for dinner. How would I say no? I’m actually quite impressed that they are willing to go all the way to Kisaran for a dinner. It’s almost 1-hour ride! Sometime I was reluctant to go to my favorite dining place just because it’s few bus stops away from my place.

We arrived at around 5pm and had our ‘snack’ stop the most famous “Tau Kua Hechi” (God I don’t know the spelling, let the pic do the explanation).

The said best Tau Kua Hechi in the whole Kisaran

The sinfully good fried spring roll

I was already half full when they asked me where did I want to go for dinner. We decided to try out the new restaurant that just open last month called “Jimbaran Raya Seafood”. The name reminded me of the place we went in Bali, but the atmosphere was quite different. The one at Bali are more romantic type with candle, while the one in Kisaran is purely family restaurant with bright lighting.

In any case, we ordered few items – all of them are decently priced and taste quite good. Had a good time chatting and hard time trying to finish all the food. It’s really too much! I think I had the whole crab for myself and they still keep asking me to eat more.

Jimbaran Raya Seafood - Menu & Address for future reference

My favourite avocado! Too sweet to my liking

Nothing can go wrong with salted egg

Black Pepper Crab - the star of the day

Group Pics as usual :D

It was dark when we started the journey home, but the travel time was much shorter. We make a stop near the seashore, where they are having a singing competition for this vegetarian month. Well, not really a singing competition. Everyone can go up to the stage and sing. Once done, they will receive a coupon. The lucky draw will be held afterwards to see who wins. The prize ranges from TV to fridge and bicycle. Tempting enough for 500 people to go up and sing throughout the night! O.O

one of the four big temple around the area

The small stage for everyone to go up and sing

I listened to few songs (none that I know of) and then went back home while my aunt and uncle continue to stay there. We reached back home at almost 10pm. Dad was wondering if we had dinner at Medan for taking so long (in his usual sarcastic voice :p) Mum was quite tired and we slept not so long afterwards.

Well, it was a fun Sunday!
ED

A Sneak Peak to Wheat Processing Factory + Buffet Lunch + Soap Manufacturing

One of Dad’s friends always has the charity drive during Hari Raja Haji near his factory. Well, I got a chance to join this year :)

He distributed rice, oil, meat and money to those needy people in the morning, and then meet and greet session with friends in the afternoon. We reached there around 12pm – just nice to have a quick tour around and then lunch.

Guess which one is the boss!

The place looked huge and filled with heavy machines from Japan. He brought us to the various divisions that did different stuff, but I’m not familiar with the terms at all. All I know is that the whole process are fully automated, with few staffs around to check and ensure things are working fine. I’m quite impressed that this kind of automation exists in our small town. Kudos!

The Store Room

The "Heating" Section - all the machines are like 5 story tall!

The "Filtering" Section - I really want to see it in action

The "Smoothing" Section, I guess @.@

Once the tour was done, it is time for lunch! There are a few decent local foods. For me it’s already like heaven. I forgot about my cough and tried out everything there ^^;

The Kitchen O.O

Lontong! Too many stuff that I can't even see the Lontong

Endless plates of fried noodle

After lunch, they brought us to another tour around the soup manufacturing while going to the office.

The soup shaping, cutting, and branding, all within this small machine!

The fully automated packing system

The monitoring & control machine :D

The packed ready to ship soap :D I love the smell!

The event concluded with a nice tea ceremony by the boss of that place. Hehe.

The Tea Table with electric heater! He is really pro with all the preparation!

Thanks for a nice tour and lunch, HK!
ED