indi + rani = noe | kei

Guess what! Yodhi won the Challenge Your Hero video contest! He will fly to Qatar for the Sony Ericsson Championships in the second week of November and meet and party with the finest ladies of tennis.

Horrendous curly wig: $60
Ugly dress: $5
Online self-humiliation and get to party with Ana Ivanovic: ...Priceless!

here is the video link, again

The ladies involved in the tournament:

1 Jelena Jankovic
2 Dinara Safina
3 Serena Williams
4 Elena Dementieva
5 Ana Ivanovic
6 Svetlana Kuznetsova
7 Vera Zvonareva
8 Flavia Penetta

My sister is submitting her video clip to a Doha, Qatar contest where Ana Ivanovic is the "main attraction".

Or, click here for a direct link to the video .

PS: The problem is: I did not know that I had a sister.

My Two Friends

In the past two years, I have two friends who fell into the abyss of mental disorder (depression, schizophrenia) and their stories concluded quite tragically (please don’t ask me to elaborate on the “how it has concluded” aspect).

The thing is that both stories have similar background: Their lives were so perfect. At least it seemed so on the outside. They’re both very good looking, very extroverted. They’re both over-achievers ever since they were little kids, top ranks in schools, getting scholarships, all the way up to adulthood, successful in their careers.

So far I always have good experience with Blue Bird Taxi. Their cars are always in good condition, doesn’t smell cigarette, the drivers are quite knowledgeable, good service, although the fare is slightly more expensive than other taxis. One thing about the Blue Bird, is that, the drivers that I’ve met are always happy and proud to work as Blue Bird drivers, and most of them have been with the company for many years. And I heard that the company is also quite profitable. This is a far cry from Singaporean taxi drivers who most of the time have dissatisfaction about their job or their company.

What makes Blue Bird a good taxi company? Out of curiosity, I had a quick chat with Tarsiman, on a 10 minutes ride from Noe’s school.

Yodhi met with Rick Astley at Jakarta airport this morning en route to Singapore. Yodhi told Rick that he was such a fan and grew up with "Never Gonna Give You Up" song, which topped the U.S. singles chart on 12 March 1988.

Finally, he took a photo with Rick and recorded a special message frmo Rick to Anggi and Indi, who were playing doubles in a local tennis tournament in Cibubur this evening.

The clip:

The snapshot:

Singapore's Victoria Hall 2003: Our band KARIB Gembira did a cover of "Moliendo Café" and "Kopi Dangdut" sung in acoustic version:

-Sax: Kirana Asih Widayanti
-Vocal: Askar Hilman
-Piano: Rani
-Trumpet + Conga: Indi Soemardjan
-Percussion: Budiman

*Check out our mariachi-style brass at 2:01

Want more clips?

In the process of moving to Jakarta, we’re grateful that our family and friends has been really helpful. Many well-meaning individuals, family and friends, are eager to help solving the problems that we’ve encountered.

But interestingly, many of the problems seemed to always boils down to one same solution: “You should employ a maid”.

Academics said that there are three or four stages of cultural adaptation / culture shock:

1. The Euphoric Stage
2. The Hostile Stage, which consist of Frustation and Depression stages
3. The Acceptance Stage

Having moved around several places in the past twenty years, and looking back at when we began to live in a new place, the theory rings out to be quite true. For Indi and I, it took us about 12 – 18 months until we (think that we) fully adapt, every time we move to a new place. We also observe similar patterns in our friends.