Medan Kota

This must be the longest break I have taken for this blog.. I have been busy.. busy with almost all things in life.. but in a good way though..

I am now into my fourth week of my writing course.. ( I am doing a 10 weeks online ‘life writing’ course with Oxford University, UK) which I’m now a week behind schedule coz of some trouble with my internet connection… with that, 3 homework and 1 assignment are due .. both my boys loved it when I whined about how much homework I have…

and having spent just a mere 3 weeks doing the course.. I have declare myself a truly ‘sucks’ writer.. and that’s why I have not been writing at all…. things I’ve gained and learnt are just too much to absorb and to be honest.. I have no idea what to do with lots of my blogs..

next is something rather dumb to admit, but I have recently taken on a personal trainer for my gym sessions and darn.. I feel that I have wasted my last 6 months of sweats, time and energy all for nothing.. what I was doing were all shameful wrong.. however, it’s now fun and meaningful…

As for Medan?….  on March 14 is the day that marks my officially full 10 years in this ‘too much to love and too much to hate’ town.. having any local Medanese asking me how long I have been living here and my replied said “10 years?”.. I have seen too many expressions.. and each time I gave my reply.. it’s always a question back to myself …‘why am I still here’

This is hard to explain.. but I am feeling LOST.. so lost that I cannot put into words how lost and confused I am at the moment..

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We have a friend name ‘Jonsen’ who used to work for ‘Johnson n Johnson’… the company that all mothers will pick up one of their baby products sometime in the life of her child..

And he was telling us his stories..

Over a telephone conversation to one of the company’s customer.. it went like this..

Customer: which company are you from?
Jonsen: I am from Johnson n Johnson..
Customer: oh..  dari Johnson.
Customer: what’s your name?
Jonsen: Jonsen
Customer: I know you are Johnson.. but what’s your name?
Jonsen: Jonsen..

and it went on for a while before the confusion cleared up.. cute

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Some of us travel rather extensively, use the credit cards on practically all things and with all the rewards point accumulating from the airlines program or from the credit card itself.. I have come to find out that exchanging those credit card points to shopping vouchers give the lowest return.. and I find it silly knowing how some choose to exchange the points for payment of the annual fees.. (I never pay for any of my credit card annual fees, I simply demand for mine to be complimentary.. there are ways to do it and yes.. anyone can go about doing it provided you have a good clean record..)

Well.. I am going to be honest with you all here.. I use my credit cards on every chance I could.. not because I want to be on their credit terms i.e owed money to the bank and be charged ridiculous late fees and interest.. rather I exercised my rights in all possible ways to earn the reward points.. hence over some 6-7 years of my so called hard working rights, last week, I sat down and compiled all my points from all the different cards.. did some casual calculations to have it convert to Krisflyer air miles .. well well well.. voila!!! I now have enough air miles to fly on SQ for

1.    Return air tickets to Tokyo for 8 people or
2.    rtn to Sydney for 6 people or
3.    rtn to Athens/Europe for 6 people or
4.    rtn to Los Angeles for 4 people

and by me doing all the processing online, there’s an additional 15% saving on the points deduction as well..  do look out for promotion where at times, SQ do have promotion on 50% off on the rewards redemption.

so yea.. I kinda often look out for the double rewards point promo.. like currently Citibank is giving 10X for all Hotel transactions from now till 17 January with minimum usuage of Rp 2.000.000.. I was kinda of late to find out this promo over the December, else, I could have my shopping planned that would easily lead to one free return Medan to Singapore on Silkair..

Among all major credit cards in Medan, I would say Citibank gives the best rate of return on points accumulation, lots of program during school breaks and there is no expiry on points accumulated..

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I know.. you know.. we know.. and everyone know that any start to a New Year should be something nice, good, as well as pleasant.. so it should goes the same for my first blog post for this year 2010.. but nope.. I am not… and I am not gonna think that what I experienced on the first minute of year 2010 is a bad start for my coming year..

A week before the start of this new year… I twitted, told myself and everyone that.. I am NOT gonna stay in my bedroom and fall asleep before the midnight.. rather I want to be somewhere nice to do the countdown.. and for some reasons (should have known that it’s a sign to warn me).. well, at 8pm, my boys were telling us how they want to be cuddled up in bed with mum and dad  i.e spending their night with us… and yes.. I told them a straight ‘NO’ and clearly announced that this year mama wants to have some fun..

My plan for the night was really simple… had dinner with family and then head down to Prime Bar at JW Marriott Hotel to meet up with my dear girlfriend.. and yes, for once I even made an effort to not wear something usual…

We left home at 10:15pm heading from Polonia towards Marriott Hotel.. 3 mins into the journey, small traffic began to build up but cars were moving okay… 10 mins later at Jl. Permuda, police began closing all the major roads leading up to the L.Mederka.. and so the nearest road we were allowed to turn was at Jl Sutomo.. let’s just said that I was in the car for about 2 1/2 HOURS and get to nowhere!!.. hubby ended driving on the foot pavement to get to the nearest turning just to get home…

As for my countdown?.. do I need to say more?… well, hubby and me weren’t in any mood to even talk to each other!!!… we were so so soooooo frustrated… my brain was cursing every possible single things I could thought of and with that!! … tell me, am I supposed to just console myself that…. ‘this is Medan’?.. for just once.. jusssttt onceee and for the first time in Medan… I want to celebrate my New Year in the right and proper way.. and oh yesssss… my beloved Medan town decided to close their roads this year…

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Year 2009 has been somewhat great for me… though not quite near perfect… but definitely not something for me to whine or complain about…

There have been many ups and downs.. well, such is life and often I choose to look to the future.. learned from mistakes and tell myself that well.. it’s an experienced and not to forget about it…

Though we have somewhat been neglecting MedanKu.com during the last few months… but our newly developed site MedanTalk.com which hubby and me have been wanting to do many many years back is now realized and doing well…

As for BerryIndo.com, it’s something truly unexpected… hubby did it out of love while me, till today, the only one thing I know or do is checking the number of members… the site is now widely known all over Indonesia.. to date we have over 8000 members… all done first hand by hubby himself.. (though he uses my name somehow as the Blackberry was initially for MedanKu.com)… and in marketing terms.. the number of members that we have on hand accounts to about 2% of the total Blackberry users in Indonesia..

As for my life development in Medan… ? well.. it’s sad to admit that I am still not 100 percent fully in love with this Town.. though many improvements have been made … ummm.. Medanese are still Medanese.. the water tower still remains the icon.. the only Mall worth going is still Sun Plaza and that all the different kinds of Mie remain the popular food choice among the locals…

2010… is only 3 days away.. according to Lillian Too, the coming Golden Tiger year is supposed to be good for me, a Rabbit born person… many plans have been made for both new businesses and personal drive.. for a start, my writing course with Oxford University is beginning in less than 2 weeks.. and yet I am still only in the 2nd chapter.. (hubby laughed for each time that I said that my reading is done just that… ) .. as for wishes and new year resolutions?.. honestly.. I have never made any in my entire life… for so far.. what I have in life is good enough.. and that what ever happens is the work of ownself and what I want for my life and my future is already being programmed into my much confused brain..

from me and hubby and our 2 little monsters….

Wishing you all a prosperous New Year 2010…

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