Having problems with rss fails. My blogs are pinged straight into google, but have not been updating rss feeds. Hoping I have fixed it. This is all there is for this. Once happy, I will delete.
Good night
Good night
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Earth Hour
So that was Earth Hour give or take a few minutes. Interestingly I was in Starbucks in the Emporium, Jakarta when this global event was happening. Starbucks clearly supported this event and out went the lights inside and a few went off outside in the mall as well although not that many.
For about 10 minutes the lights were switched off to give minimal lighting and then out came a member of staff to take the obligatory photos to prove that the employees had done their bit and then the light came back on to about 80% normal. Great PR but not really in the spirit of things!
For about 10 minutes the lights were switched off to give minimal lighting and then out came a member of staff to take the obligatory photos to prove that the employees had done their bit and then the light came back on to about 80% normal. Great PR but not really in the spirit of things!
Outside the Emporium walking up to Pasar Festival it was pretty much business as normal, it was a little darker, but not by much.
The taxi trip into Mampang highlighted very few dark parts of the city there and that was a shame as the city management could really do some good with this event if they could convince more organisations to switch the power off for an hour.
Ironically and most amusing was a friend produced a letter from the governor himself, which was in some form of degree that all the power will be turned off in the city for an hour. Perhaps it was a ploy by PLN to distract us away from the rolling power outs last week.
Surely Earthhour would be a good excuse to complete essential maintenance!!!! But it was good to see there was still a lot of fake news surrounding the event as normal. It was a success I must admit but there is always more that could be done, if people wanted it to be done.
Quite a fun weekend really, with a meeting that really was just for information purposes and did not really conclude with any actions. A trip into central park for some coffee and shoe buying with the fiancee and then to Aphrodites for beers and food with friends which really was a good thing to do.
The weekend ended with the great idea of a trip to Carrefour as I fancied some good fresh bread and salad and well at the end of the day they can do that bit right.
So in I go knowing what ever happens something would annoy me. And so it did. In the busiest of aisles (noodles, packets and sauces) someone in their wisdom (or lack of it) decided to build a stage, place chairs erect a sound system and then have dancing dads on it. WTF are they thinking, after 16 years of food retail management, all this does is make people regret shopping there, frustrate and cause general unhappiness amongst the shoppers unless Indonesians think it is alright. Trying to buy a few things from that aisle and yes I really needed to buy some things was met by looks of disbelief from the happy sat mums, the sound technicians who were just in the way and well I don't care who else. I mean come on how desperate is Carrefour to allow these kind of things, where was the sensible management decision in that one. Unbelievable.
Then in the queue while I was being served, slowly but with some car by the cashier, a woman decided to push past everyone and tell the cashier that she needed to buy a few things and could she just take her money (she gave the cashier 50,000) and then would come back. I assume that was said. Again the cashier just said no and the woman looked in total shock at the fact that Carrefour how ever badly managed it is, actually was not a local street mart and had rules. She stomped off and the whole queue just burst into laughter at her manner and totally outrageous behaviour.
If only the hero in the apartments (now a giant) did good freshly baked bread, I would never go into a carrefour, but then if I never went in a Carrefour, I would never remember how much better everywhere else is for service and management decisions.
Seriously thinking of creating a blog just about my adventures in Carrefour!
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Bits and Pieces
So I am still having issues with the rent and the cost of the apartment for the rest of the year and I have to let my landlady know what I will do in the near future. I guess I already know but stringing it out for a bit wont hurt, well that was the plan but as normal I have received the usual 'outstanding maintenance bill' from the apartment management and the threat of having the electricity and water cut off on Sunday if not all paid. Typical. So more contact tomorrow to get her to pay or whatever she will do to sort it out. Not even phased by it now, just another step along the way to mind.
With the AC off and the balcony doors open it has been open season for things to fly in and visit me, mosquitoes and the like have been dying once caught. The worst thing I forgot about is the amount of dust in the air and now I will have to dust everything again. Also I had forgot what a noisy place Jakarta is, what with the call to prayer rattling around the apartment blocks, Central Park turning up the volume for what ever they are doing, the noise from the almost finished apartments next to me and being currently under a flight path to somewhere makes for a noisy place. And the worst is the motorbikes and the custom noise exhausts that they have, far too loud and they should be banned and made illegal, if they are not already.
Not much else has been going on, really, a few trips to the malls and to do some shopping and had to get the fiancee a new blackberry as her curve developed a fault and after some work researching the fault on the internet discovered that it was either unlikely to be fixed or would cost too much to get it fixed so we got her another one.
The fault that the Curve developed was due to the headphone socket being used a lot and this created a problem with making telephone calls and receiving them. when ever a call was being made or received the headset icon would flash and nothing could be heard. If the headset was plugged into the phone then you could make phone calls.
Blackberry repair center in Kalapa Gading said it was a hardware problem and that they could fix it, if we took it there.
After a while you have to add up the cost of all this and we did and thats why she got a new one. Taxis there and back, plus time not having it and using / finding / borrowing another phone to use, cost of service with no guarantee of it being fixed then really is it worth it?
For me no, for others yes.
I have also now found out finally how to blog via my BB and have the posts arrive in my blog, so thats great news also and once I get out and about I might just start blogging short entries of things as I see them, kind of like long tweets with social commentary!
It seems to be rather simple yet the instructions how to do it are a little harder than they should be, or I have worked out something else and its not mobile blogging, I really cant tell, but hey ho it works so thats that.
Went out into the city for some beer and food on Saturday, that was good, Aphrodites was quiet and the food is still good and the buy one get one free beer on a Saturday afternoon was also a good choice and still not that expensive, it gets more expensive as the night wears on and for a change it beats starbucks. I suspect this weekend I will be visiting somewhere else.
Time to change the old routine
The fault that the Curve developed was due to the headphone socket being used a lot and this created a problem with making telephone calls and receiving them. when ever a call was being made or received the headset icon would flash and nothing could be heard. If the headset was plugged into the phone then you could make phone calls.
Blackberry repair center in Kalapa Gading said it was a hardware problem and that they could fix it, if we took it there.
After a while you have to add up the cost of all this and we did and thats why she got a new one. Taxis there and back, plus time not having it and using / finding / borrowing another phone to use, cost of service with no guarantee of it being fixed then really is it worth it?
For me no, for others yes.
I have also now found out finally how to blog via my BB and have the posts arrive in my blog, so thats great news also and once I get out and about I might just start blogging short entries of things as I see them, kind of like long tweets with social commentary!
It seems to be rather simple yet the instructions how to do it are a little harder than they should be, or I have worked out something else and its not mobile blogging, I really cant tell, but hey ho it works so thats that.
Went out into the city for some beer and food on Saturday, that was good, Aphrodites was quiet and the food is still good and the buy one get one free beer on a Saturday afternoon was also a good choice and still not that expensive, it gets more expensive as the night wears on and for a change it beats starbucks. I suspect this weekend I will be visiting somewhere else.
Time to change the old routine
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Mobile blogging Blackberry Indonesia
This is the first of many small notes from me now I have managed to work out mobile blogging in Indonesia. It has been written and sent through my blackberry.
I registered by sending an email to go@blogger.com and then replied register through my netbook
I then received an email with a blog provided by blogger.com and a code you can claim it with.
I clicked on the link to claim typed in the code and then selected the blog I wanted to use (jakarta news) and hey presto the word 'register' appeared as entry.
That's gone and this is the first mobile blog entry.
You need to send mobile entries as emails and then they will appear in your blog. The posts are not automatically tweeted or pushed elsewhere though so you will have to do that yourself.
I will see if I can find a fix apart from retweeting them myself.
Hooray
Sent from my BlackBerry®
powered by Sinyal Kuat INDOSAT
I registered by sending an email to go@blogger.com and then replied register through my netbook
I then received an email with a blog provided by blogger.com and a code you can claim it with.
I clicked on the link to claim typed in the code and then selected the blog I wanted to use (jakarta news) and hey presto the word 'register' appeared as entry.
That's gone and this is the first mobile blog entry.
You need to send mobile entries as emails and then they will appear in your blog. The posts are not automatically tweeted or pushed elsewhere though so you will have to do that yourself.
I will see if I can find a fix apart from retweeting them myself.
Hooray
Sent from my BlackBerry®
powered by Sinyal Kuat INDOSAT
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Tired out
I have not really blogged much about whats going here for the last couple of weeks, mainly because its hard to blog about getting up, going to work, coming home, going to sleep, getting up, going to work etc etc. But at the end of the day that is pretty much what has been happening.
There has been a lot of new faces at work and lots of new challenges and stuff to do which has been absorbing my time resulting in long days, something I thought I had moved away from. Now I am not complaining but it means that there is little time to much else.
I finally got the bike fixed and the they came to see me which was nice. 2 service men fixed the bike in a hour and it was running well and then on Sunday in the huge storm I had to go somewhere before another trip to the airport to pick up a new teacher, I was pushed off the road by big silver Mercedes into a Puddle. I am ok but the back part of the bike was dunked into the puddle and the water was over the height of the back wheel. I got it going again but it does not sound the same for now, maybe another tune up is needed. I should also look at a new chain as there is rust on it where it has been through too many floods. WD40 seems to have helped it so maybe I will spray some more on it.
The apartment has been a worry with the landlady demanding more but doing less and thats been a pain. After getting the AC serviced, re-gassed etc it stopped working. On the next engineers visit, a leak has been discovered and so it needs to be replaced or serviced. It is an old unit so that is not helping. I have decided to not have it fixed and want it removed, I can cope in the heat to be honest, I will buy an upright fan and deal with it. I need to sort my rent out and currently arguing about the cost of how much I should pay.
The apartment management in their wisdom decided to end sending utility bills now and instead will email or sms the amount. However they seemed to have forgotten to tell anyone so I had to get that sorted before they cut me off, which I did.
Also since the Oscars came and went in a little over 3 hours there is nothing but really bad movies on HBO. Chuck has disappeared for a while, Van damme is on all channels and the premieres are from movies I have not even heard of. Trans TV is making a good attempt at adding more movies but the adverts are getting in the way of the films and thats the same for Global.
I have not really been anywhere in the city as been too busy. I did watch the Kings Speech and was stunned how good a movie it really is so that was good.
On a good note there has been lots of days where the mountains can be seen from work and that is a nice thought that the air has been a little cleaner than normal but on other days you can still chew the air it is so thick. The recent storms have made the roads I ride on a little more bumpy and there are more holes appearing daily. I did comment that there seems to be less motorcycles belching smoke now a days which just leaves the metro minis, kopajas and the bajais and things will be better.
On Friday I watched streamed live into my office the tsunami and really did not grasp the size or scale of the unfolding live on TV news which was totally shocking and numbing to watch. However 5 days on I numb and have lost all understanding of what is happening and what has happened as it is news overload. The Libyan crisis continues but I never understood that at all but I think the news sites have over egged the disaster and made it harder to fully understand everything as they keep repeating the same news or making a small pieces of news big pieces of news without any substance. The BBC website has been doing that far too often. Yet Twitter and the sites I follow was giving a good level of news and reports with out the hype but that seems to be changing.
I am not sure what is more terrible, the loss of life in Japan or the potential risk of a meltdown. I guess you could argue that this is the first time the news has been able to cover such a disaster in so much detail and with the 'as it happens' coverage is also able to untangle what is important and what is not.
Still I can only hope things improve everything sorts itself out and soon and in the right way.
Thats it really and I am looking forward to some time off this weekend to recharge and relax.
There has been a lot of new faces at work and lots of new challenges and stuff to do which has been absorbing my time resulting in long days, something I thought I had moved away from. Now I am not complaining but it means that there is little time to much else.
I finally got the bike fixed and the they came to see me which was nice. 2 service men fixed the bike in a hour and it was running well and then on Sunday in the huge storm I had to go somewhere before another trip to the airport to pick up a new teacher, I was pushed off the road by big silver Mercedes into a Puddle. I am ok but the back part of the bike was dunked into the puddle and the water was over the height of the back wheel. I got it going again but it does not sound the same for now, maybe another tune up is needed. I should also look at a new chain as there is rust on it where it has been through too many floods. WD40 seems to have helped it so maybe I will spray some more on it.
The apartment has been a worry with the landlady demanding more but doing less and thats been a pain. After getting the AC serviced, re-gassed etc it stopped working. On the next engineers visit, a leak has been discovered and so it needs to be replaced or serviced. It is an old unit so that is not helping. I have decided to not have it fixed and want it removed, I can cope in the heat to be honest, I will buy an upright fan and deal with it. I need to sort my rent out and currently arguing about the cost of how much I should pay.
The apartment management in their wisdom decided to end sending utility bills now and instead will email or sms the amount. However they seemed to have forgotten to tell anyone so I had to get that sorted before they cut me off, which I did.
Also since the Oscars came and went in a little over 3 hours there is nothing but really bad movies on HBO. Chuck has disappeared for a while, Van damme is on all channels and the premieres are from movies I have not even heard of. Trans TV is making a good attempt at adding more movies but the adverts are getting in the way of the films and thats the same for Global.
I have not really been anywhere in the city as been too busy. I did watch the Kings Speech and was stunned how good a movie it really is so that was good.
On a good note there has been lots of days where the mountains can be seen from work and that is a nice thought that the air has been a little cleaner than normal but on other days you can still chew the air it is so thick. The recent storms have made the roads I ride on a little more bumpy and there are more holes appearing daily. I did comment that there seems to be less motorcycles belching smoke now a days which just leaves the metro minis, kopajas and the bajais and things will be better.
On Friday I watched streamed live into my office the tsunami and really did not grasp the size or scale of the unfolding live on TV news which was totally shocking and numbing to watch. However 5 days on I numb and have lost all understanding of what is happening and what has happened as it is news overload. The Libyan crisis continues but I never understood that at all but I think the news sites have over egged the disaster and made it harder to fully understand everything as they keep repeating the same news or making a small pieces of news big pieces of news without any substance. The BBC website has been doing that far too often. Yet Twitter and the sites I follow was giving a good level of news and reports with out the hype but that seems to be changing.
I am not sure what is more terrible, the loss of life in Japan or the potential risk of a meltdown. I guess you could argue that this is the first time the news has been able to cover such a disaster in so much detail and with the 'as it happens' coverage is also able to untangle what is important and what is not.
Still I can only hope things improve everything sorts itself out and soon and in the right way.
Thats it really and I am looking forward to some time off this weekend to recharge and relax.
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
English Language
I am sorry to report that I do not speak like Harry Potter nor do I use the Queens English all the time. I come from the southwest of England and so my accent and language is slighty worse than most.
I can over pronounce the 'r' sound, the verb be is always used in the wrong form and it is more tonal and full of more sounds.
Its great.
I have some original language for you which is spoken rather than written. Lets see how you get on!!!
How be he? Hello, how are you?
How be on? Hello, how are you?
Off down yonder? I am off out
Whats on? What is happening
Yer then, whats it? Excuse me, can you help?
tis farmers now... Its very cold out (only farmers would venture into this
weather to milk their cows!)
Wheres ee? Where is....
An er Isn't it
wan ner Won't you
An nus Aren't we
What be on? What is going on/what are you doing?
Bugger me! Gosh and Darn
Now, here are some lyrics from a west country band called the Wurzles.
Enjoy
Where be it Blackbird to? I know where he be,
He be up yon Wurzel tree, And I be after he!
Now I sees he, And he sees I,
Bugger’d if I don’t get ‘en
Wit a girt big stick I’ll knock ‘im down
Blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
‘Ow’s ‘E Father?
Allright!
All me life I’m on the farm, Workin’ for me keep
Tendin’ pigs and chickens, and they cows and sheep
But everywhere I’m workin’, there’s one who always mocks me
He hidin' somewhere in the trees, blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!
[Chorus]
Allright!
Underneath the open sky in spring we loves to dine
We likes to ‘ear the flappin’ of the missus washin’ line
We listens to a tuneful song, a blackbird or a tit,
But on me vest and underpants he scored a direct hit!
[Chorus]
If I goes out poachin’, a creepin’ through the fields,
With me old retriever, a followin’ at me heels.
If I aim me shotgun at a pheasant in the hay
That bloody blackbird starts his row and frightens him away!
[Chorus]
No longer can I sleep at night, get peace of any kind,
That bird’ll be the death of me, he’s prayin’ on me mind!
If I chase him long enough, I’ll get ‘en by and by,
And celebrate me vict’ry with a girt big blackbird pie!
[Chorus]
Allright!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeCwr9MmiIc
I can over pronounce the 'r' sound, the verb be is always used in the wrong form and it is more tonal and full of more sounds.
Its great.
I have some original language for you which is spoken rather than written. Lets see how you get on!!!
How be he? Hello, how are you?
How be on? Hello, how are you?
Off down yonder? I am off out
Whats on? What is happening
Yer then, whats it? Excuse me, can you help?
tis farmers now... Its very cold out (only farmers would venture into this
weather to milk their cows!)
Wheres ee? Where is....
An er Isn't it
wan ner Won't you
An nus Aren't we
What be on? What is going on/what are you doing?
Bugger me! Gosh and Darn
Now, here are some lyrics from a west country band called the Wurzles.
Enjoy
Where be it Blackbird to? I know where he be,
He be up yon Wurzel tree, And I be after he!
Now I sees he, And he sees I,
Bugger’d if I don’t get ‘en
Wit a girt big stick I’ll knock ‘im down
Blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
‘Ow’s ‘E Father?
Allright!
All me life I’m on the farm, Workin’ for me keep
Tendin’ pigs and chickens, and they cows and sheep
But everywhere I’m workin’, there’s one who always mocks me
He hidin' somewhere in the trees, blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!
[Chorus]
Where be it Blackbird to? I know where he be,
He be up yon Wurzel tree, And I be after he!
Now I sees he, And he sees I,
Bugger’d if I don’t get ‘en
Wit a girt big stick I’ll knock ‘im down
Blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
‘Ow’s ‘E Father?
He be up yon Wurzel tree, And I be after he!
Now I sees he, And he sees I,
Bugger’d if I don’t get ‘en
Wit a girt big stick I’ll knock ‘im down
Blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
‘Ow’s ‘E Father?
Allright!
Underneath the open sky in spring we loves to dine
We likes to ‘ear the flappin’ of the missus washin’ line
We listens to a tuneful song, a blackbird or a tit,
But on me vest and underpants he scored a direct hit!
[Chorus]
Where be it Blackbird to? I know where he be,
He be up yon Wurzel tree, And I be after he!
Now I sees he, And he sees I,
Bugger’d if I don’t get ‘en
Wit a girt big stick I’ll knock ‘im down
Blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
‘Ow’s ‘E Father?
He be up yon Wurzel tree, And I be after he!
Now I sees he, And he sees I,
Bugger’d if I don’t get ‘en
Wit a girt big stick I’ll knock ‘im down
Blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
‘Ow’s ‘E Father?
Allright!
If I goes out poachin’, a creepin’ through the fields,
With me old retriever, a followin’ at me heels.
If I aim me shotgun at a pheasant in the hay
That bloody blackbird starts his row and frightens him away!
[Chorus]
Where be it Blackbird to? I know where he be,
He be up yon Wurzel tree, And I be after he!
Now I sees he, And he sees I,
Bugger’d if I don’t get ‘en
Wit a girt big stick I’ll knock ‘im down
Blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
‘Ow’s ‘E Father?
He be up yon Wurzel tree, And I be after he!
Now I sees he, And he sees I,
Bugger’d if I don’t get ‘en
Wit a girt big stick I’ll knock ‘im down
Blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
‘Ow’s ‘E Father?
Allright!
No longer can I sleep at night, get peace of any kind,
That bird’ll be the death of me, he’s prayin’ on me mind!
If I chase him long enough, I’ll get ‘en by and by,
And celebrate me vict’ry with a girt big blackbird pie!
[Chorus]
Where be it Blackbird to? I know where he be,
He be up yon Wurzel tree, And I be after he!
Now I sees he, And he sees I,
Bugger’d if I don’t get ‘en
Wit a girt big stick I’ll knock ‘im down
Blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
‘Ow’s ‘E Father?
He be up yon Wurzel tree, And I be after he!
Now I sees he, And he sees I,
Bugger’d if I don’t get ‘en
Wit a girt big stick I’ll knock ‘im down
Blackbird I’ll ‘ave he!
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
‘Ow’s ‘E Father?
Allright!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeCwr9MmiIc
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