andrehyg, Divine Mercy

A Comprehensive Indonesian – English Dictionary by Alan M. Stevens and A. Ed Schmidgall-Tellings is a new dictionary published by Ohio University Press, published on August 1, 2004 and of course it’s a bilingual dictionary. I want to have it in my collection but haven’t found any bookstores in Jakarta or Singapore that have it. If I buy it through amazon.com, the shipping fee is about 50% of it’s price and I don’t want to spend that amount for shipping fee. The dictionary itself costs $ 65. If it’s available in Singapore, at least I can ask a favor of a friend to buy it. In fact, I did ask a favor of a friend to find the dictionary for me in Singapore but unfortunately it has not been available yet. He searched in Borders and Kinokuniya to no avail. My sincere thanks for his time.

My latest effort is to call Atmajaya library. This library specializes in books of english language, linguistics, esl, English dictionaries and it’s under faculty of english of Atmajaya. Ibu Bida of the library promised me that if she ordered the dictionary, she would order one for me. Thanks to her.

If I have the dictionary with me some day, whether Ibu Bida gets it for me or later it’s available in Jakarta or Singapore or I finally decide to order it through amazon.com, I will let you know :)

Got a raise today. In fact, everybody in the company gets raises. It’s an annual raise. I am so happy and thankful, no matter how many percent the raise is. With more money, in my case, higher salary, I can do more.

The keyword is ‘thankful’. By having this word in mind, your efforts in struggling in anything would be easier.

This morning at Four Season Hotel, I attended a seminar on ‘Smart Plan for Your Future’ held by Axa Mandiri Financial Services, a joint venture company between AXA Group and Bank Mandiri. The speakers are Omar S. Anwar, vice president of Bank Mandiri, Hery Gunardi, president of Axa Mandiri Financial Services and Roy Sembel, a financial planner and it’s moderated by Farhan.

The whole topic is about financial planning. Lately I am interesting in financial planning and you know what? I buy several books on this topic, mostly published by Elex Media Komputindo, ranging from saving, investing to mutual funds. Reading books and attending seminars, I have started to implement financial planning consciously.

I used to anti insurance products but now I have a broader perspective.

He lives in a slum area, very crowded. Late at night, motorists still pass in the alley in front of his house and early in the morning, noises from passers-by will disturb him, forcing him to wake up early. His bedroom is very small with minimum ventilation. It consists of a two-storey bed and a desk. He has to share the room with his brother. Because of the bad ventilation, he even arranges himself to sleep late to minimize his stay in his own bedroom. Besides, late at night’s air tends to be not that hot. He often sleeps only with a pant to avoid hot air.

When he comes home late, many times he will encounter hoodlums in his area, asking for money. Smelling the aroma of alcohol, he will just give them the money. You never know what drunken hoodlums can do even if they have what they want. Peace is far from his heart. Living peacefully is his dream.

The trauma he had, when one of the hoodlums tried to break into his house years ago, is still there. At that time, he had to deal with court, with threat, with worries, with insecurity.

He has lived in this area for about ten years before moving out to a better, more peaceful place. He continues his life…

Am I satisfied with my present job? Am I satisfied with my salary? What do you think? Generally, people tend to be not satisfied. Then, does it mean that I am not satisfied either? Or am I quite satisfied? To tell you the truth, I don’t know.

I don’t have high expectation. I tend to be happy with what I have. Of course, now and then, I am not satisfied. But, as I have mentioned, people tend to be not satisfied.

And why do you think I write about this? :)

This morning Andrew had his second shots for DtaP (Diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and acellular pertussis vaccine), HiB (Haemophilus influenzae type b) and IPV (Inactivated polio vaccine). He had his vaccines at Graha Medika by dr. Victor Erwandi. We decided to change to dr. Victor because Andrew’s doctor since his birth, dr. Sanders, moved to South Jakarta area which is too far from our house.

Andrew is scheduled to have his third shots on February 24, 2005.

I am still taking Alloris of Sanbe Farma (generic: loratadine), an antihistamine to treat allergies. Although the hives has gone, I still need to finish the medication. Besides antihistamine, my doctor also prescribed panadol (generic: paracetamol) to treat my fever.

On new year’s day, I invited my brother and his family to lunch out at Taman Anggrek. There, we had seafood. Later at night, when I was about to go to sleep, suddenly my back felt itchy and rashes appeared here and there. I started to scratch and red spots were all over my body. I was panicked not knowing of allergic symptoms, wondering what’s wrong. Later my doctor told me that it was one of allergic symptoms and it could be from what I had eaten.

I came across this article from babytalk magazine and I want to share it. The magazine is a gift from our friend. The title is “10 things to love about being a new mom”. Here they are:

1. Finding you now have the capacity to sit perfectly still in complete silence in your own home and at the same time do the most important thing in the world: feed your baby.
2. Finding you now have the capacity to sit perfectly still in complete silence in your own home feeding your baby and at the same time burning as many calories as you would on the StairMaster.
3. After agonizing for months to arrive at the perfect name for your baby, discovering that your heart soars with pleasure every time you use it.
4. Having an excuse to buy those adorable clothes that used to look to tiny to fit an actual human being.
5. Realizing your baby looks like you – and that you are a lot cuter than you thougt.
6. Going from zero to a hundred in your parenting knowledge, seemingly overnight.
7. The fabulousness of your breasts.
8. That delicious feeling of your baby falling asleep, so warm and soft and trusting, against your shoulder.
9. Discovering that just when you thought you couldn’t possibly love your husband any more than you already do, you do.
10. Getting the best baby gift of all: a new little person who loves you unconditionally.

It's hoped that the above list will motivate those who are planning to get pregnant and for those who are pregnant now, the list will reduce their tension of giving birth.