Medan Kota

I went on a parenting session last Friday which was a public holiday…. so two days before the day, I informed my boys of how I will not be home and that I will be going to school for a day.. Jadon being the cheeky one, then happily shouted “wow.. mama, you are going school!”. I then explained to him, “it’s only for a day, I will be going to school to learn how to be a better mummy to you boys”.. the boys got excited somehow and couldn’t stop telling everyone.. saying that I am going back to school and that I will have lots of homework etc… and insisted on sending me to my class on the day..

The truth is, it’s only a one day seminar at Aryaduta Hotel.. so on the morning itself, both boys woke up early and were readily to send me off.. and during the breakfast time, on the dining table was a pack of Chinese preserved Honey Plum.. and this was what Jadon came up with..

Me: “Elson, can you please help me put this bottle (the preserved Honey Plum) into my handbag please?”

Jadon: “Mama! you can eat in the class? my Miss won’t let us eat sweets in the classroom..!”

Me: “Jadon, the school that mama goes to is different, mine is school for adults and not children..”

Jadon: “That’s not fair!”

I then began teasing him and joke around…

Me: “actually, my school is at a hotel!.. with nice air-con, nice chairs, nice tables, nice rooms.. and we eat nice food with soup, sweets, coca cola, coffee and tea and it’s at Aryaduta Hotel..!”

Jadon: “wow, so if you are hungry, you can pick up the phone and ask the uncle to deliver food to your classroom too?..”

I find that kids these days have the abilities to come up with all the funny thoughts…

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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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alright… as I am writing this… my 2nd series of the movie ‘Gossip Girl’ is put on the ‘pause’ mode…(the inspiration mood to write set in)…  and seriously… after several years of reading the review of the movie over at tmz and perezhilton, I finally gave in… and have been watching it on a marathon run over the past few days…

I am going to admit this… but by the time I finished the second disc, I was already mumbling…  ‘X…O0o…X…O0o…’ at the end of each sentence I was blurting out to my hubby… and not to forget getting some very crazy ideas… anyway, it must have been 18 years of love I guess… somehow my dear hubby can read my mind and said.. ‘don’t even think of doing one… do your Medanku!! … and no!…  I am not gonna set up another blog and name it MedanGossip.com for you…’….. instantly, I was like… darn you… of all things, how did you managed to read my brain…?

well, it depends on how you see it… a side of it definitely is fun while another side of it is gonna turn out like the movie.. the writer will probably be wrecking the victim’s life… to say that it’s a mean thing to do… uuummmm … a ‘Yes’ as well as a ‘No’… but then again, we all have seen worst…

best yet is that I can’t seem to stop thinking of the whole idea… I’ve been doing some casual draft plan in my head… on like how to approach it… managed it.. writing it.. editing it.. etc… and it just gets more exciting… and now my brain just wouldn’t stop…

this is hard to explain… but Medan, being a small town.. with everyone saying… I know you and you know me … and me constantly hearing news of this and that …. and that this who and who, is with who and who… and this who and who, is having an affair with who and who etc… oohhh believe me…  it’s such a perfect little town to gossip about…  and now you are all probably thinking that with me revealing it out loud … it’s no longer ‘xoxo’…. well yes..  it’s true to that.. but hehehheee, I am writing in hoping to give idea to some people whom may have the time to realize it…

visualize this?

‘MedanGossip here, … your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Medan’s elite’…… xoxo

wakkkakkkakkaaaaa

The ideal way?… get a group of good friends max of 3 or 4 to write… I guaranteed you… it sure will be 100% talk of the town… and well…. I don’t mind in helping to spread the words too… ^0^

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p.s. the domain name ‘www.medangossip.com’ is still available for grab…  $8.88 @ www.netvoob.com

but in the meantime, it’s

‘MedanKota here, … your one and only source into the crazy lives of Medan’s expat’…. xoxo

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It’s obvious that I have not been writing much… well.. not much was going on around me… and I prefer to write when my instinct said so… else I can sit in front of my comp screen all day… waffled through the post and ended deleting the work… though I have no major story to tell… I do have some of the shorter version to share…

I was at Mango (the boutique at Sun Plaza Medan) yesterday… while I was being served by the salesgirls… 2 relatively tall LOCAL ladies with their boobs practically spilled out from the new TIGHT nicely tried out tops were well served by the male persons whom were obviously blushing with glee… I was standing beside them seeing the male reactions and was thinking ….. how did Indonesia be known as one of the world most populated Muslims country… and what’s with all the fuss about Syriah…?

At Marriott male’s locker room…hubby often overheard… ‘there are more cah bor (pretty woman) at Cambridge than here’…. in fact I can write a post of the gossip going around this male room… but naahhh… ‘respect’… is the word…

is it the Indonesian culture or what… but I find it real rude to have people opening a sentence with ..‘ooii’… ‘yo’… ‘woii’…  and I get that a lot with the Medanku Blackberry users… and mind you.. the screenshot clearly stated… ‘Vic@MedanKu.com’ …

am considering an online degree in Journalism… then it became.. many of the known writers or the top bloggers definitely has no such title behind their great name… but well.. I think I am persueing it anyhow anyway…

Spent Rp 600.000 on a Lunch for 4 at ‘Gelato’ resto one afternoon … the more I think of it… it’s like.. ‘what did we eat???’.. it’s an absolute ripped off…!! .. well.. what saddened me was the fact the food were nothing to be thrilled at….

I have been married for almost a decade… apart from our honeymoon… hubby and me have not been to anywhere without work or the kids… i.e .. pure traveling just the 2 of us exploring new city with no work and no kid attached… and he finally agreed to a week at Shanghai after all these years…

I was going through my Aug/Sep credit card bills and am absolutely astonished to see ‘Trattoria’ and ‘JW Marriott’… dominate my payment list for this month… and I can see more to come with the Marriott discount card…

From year one that I have moved to Medan… I have the vision to open a restaurant… (who doesn’t huh..) … I’ve gone through like 5 major readings purely on guides to opening a restaurant… simulating countless amount of calculations like budgeting, P&L account… miles spent on road scouting for the best location… hours spent calling up property agents enquiring about the Ruko… one idea lead to the next… and NO… nothing works… and NO.. I have no regret… as it is undeniably that my tastebud will definitely not work with the local Chinese… but in contrast… I am finding a gap that will suit the local Indonesian… Chinese consumers in Medan? … I have raised my white flag up long long time ago…

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