How smart is this solution from our Agriculture Minister !
“Agriculture Minister Suswono has suggested Indonesians reduce consuming steamed rice to 1.5 percent by implementing a No Steamed Rice Day program”.
He seriously believes that we can help the decreasing rice production by eating less rice and he even suggested that we switch to flatus-inducing sweet potatoes! And why has our rice production decreased? I thought Indonesia exports rice!
I recently learnt that an institution I used to work for (not naming any names) was bad-mouthed in several online forums. One of the bad-mouther was clearly a disgruntled employee (or former employee) and he/she was happy to share lots of ugly facts as well as exaggerated ugly facts about the institution.
At first, I thought what he/she did was beyond terrible, but then I realised something.
When I was working there, me and my colleagues tried so many ways to make the big bosses up there to realise that there were so many things that were not right! We brought them up in the meetings and all sorts of aimless workshops but nothing real was ever done. We were so ethical that nobody has ever tried venting them out in a public forum until now. That disgruntled employee on the other hand, seemed to focus less on the ethical side and more on what really works.
Bad-mouthed in a public, online forum burns so bad that the big bosses are more likely to do something to put down the fire and rebuild the good reputation. So there’s actually a positive side to that reckless ranting. But do we have to wait until we’re burnt to realise that we’ve been keeping lots of explosives?
When I first read the synopsis, I was convinced that this movie wasn’t worth watching. The story revolves around Li, a plain Jane trying to find the love of her life. Sounds too Bridget Jones-ish to me. But hubby watched it and somehow he loves loves loves this movie! So I got curious and watched it too. And what a pleasant surprise it was. The story was – as I predicted – that simple, but somehow it made me smile hours after the movie concluded . I didn’t even get that from Bridget Jones. It was funny, romantic, bittersweet, and in the end, sweet but not overly sugary. I think it’s probably because it’s easier to relate to Li’s life rather than Bridget’s.
The story is about Li, a middle class Thai Chinese girl who can barely speaks her grandma’s dialect. On her best friend’s wedding, she got drunk and crashed her dad’s car. Her dad confiscated the car key and without it, she has to take 5 different transportations just to get to work. And that’s where the fun begins.
I smiled when Li had to take the motorcycle taxi (in Indonesia it’s called Ojek) and hurt her knees as the motorcycle tries to make its way through the traffic jam recklessly, oh my…I hurt my knees because of reckless ojek riders all the time but I would have never expected to see it glorified in a movie.
I almost cried when she expressed her loneliness and disappointments. She reminds me of myself in my moments of insecurities. Throughout the movie, I found myself hoping that she will eventually finds her happy ending! In the end, it made me feel like I should give hubby a hug. Crazy huh?
I seriously think Sirin aka Chris Horwang deserves an award for this. (I just checked, she already won several awards! Way to go Chris! )
So my conclusion is, Bangkok Traffic Love Story is definitely worth watching !
I’m giving it a 7 out of 10
The whole story began last Friday. I knew I didn’t feel too well, but I thought it was just a cold or something. I thought if I had enough rest over the weekend, I would be back up and running by Monday. How wrong I was. On Monday, my whole body ached and I felt horribly feverish. I tried to go to the bathroom and suddenly I lost my vision. I passed out for a couple of minutes. Luckily hubby was still at home he took me to a nearby hospital.
I spent 4 days in the hospital for a combo infection of measles and dengue fever. By Thursday, my fever is gone so I begged them to let me go. With the help of my uncle and aunt, they were convinced that I’ll make a speedier recovery at home.
Then I spent the rest of the week curled up at home trying to recover without the aide of IV. This week has been a very very bad week. I guess it could’ve been worse, the words dengue fever had always strike a certain fear to me because a long long time ago, during my primary school years, I lost a classmate from dengue fever.
Being sick felt like the world came to an abrupt stop. When in reality, it doesn’t really happen. Only your world came into a halt. And you learn to value things you don’t always appreciate when you’re healthy.
My Waisak resolution is a simple one : to try to be a good person. Of course, I need to be a bit accurate about this: I want to be a good person that is not easily misused by others ^^ . Sigh.. I’m tired, I should just go home. Maybe once I have enough rest, I can think of a fancier resolution. Happy Waisak day everyone ! May we be happy , may our parents be happy, may our friends be happy, our pets too, our enemies be happier than ever, and may all beings be happy too! I shall rest and spread happiness later.
I’m thinking of celebrating Waisak by watching Nightmare on Elm Street , hmm…
This week has been a rather stressful week for both of us. We took home all the workplace stresses and turned them into home stresses. Until, the S.Typhi bacteria - that has decided to call my intestines home – began to re-attack! S. Typhi’s attack didn’t come as much of a surprise, I kinda noticed that it attacks every time my immune system dropped and stress took over.
I was forced to take some time off to fix the damages caused by S.Typhi and to allow the antibiotics to do their job in killing S.Typhi. I hope the antibiotics succeeded this time! As I’m feeling better now, I realised that I have worried too much. Erwin has worried too much too!
We worried until all the worries eventually snowballed into something larger than what we could handle.
What if things don’t go as planned? What if we can never get from point A to point B? What if I failed? What if I’m not cut for this job? Maybe I shouldn’t ? Maybe we should have?
When it comes to the art of letting go, we still have a lot to learn.
. I didn’t even get that from Bridget Jones. It was funny, romantic, bittersweet, and in the end, sweet but not overly sugary. I think it’s probably because it’s easier to relate to Li’s life rather than Bridget’s.
