Antony’s Weblog

Two days ago, one of my old friends sent an email.  He was asking, why I never write a single blog about Magelang, our hometown in Indonesia.  He said that I have written many blogs about Germany, Singapore and Canada; but not a single one about Magelang.  Well… he is true in a way.  As a matter of fact, I do have some pages and pictures my childhood in Magelang.  This gallery is one example.

So, where is Magelang actually?  Magelang is a small city in Central Java, Indonesia.  If you open your map, you can find it at 7.28′ S, 110.12′ E.  Why do I call it, "Magelang, a city of hope"?  That is what we usually call our city Magelang Kota Harapan.  Actually harapan in this context is not hope.  It is an acronym of Hidup Aman Rapi Asri Nyaman.  I’ll try to translate it into English: Life Safe Nice Beautiful Comfort (not sure if they are the right translation though).

There are some sites about Magelang on the Internet, e.g.:

• Magelang at JogloSemar.coid
• Magelang at Wikipedia.org
• Magelang at Britannica.com
• Magelang.org (unfortunately available in Indonesian language only)
• Borobudur Temple - the largest Buddhist temple in the world, located near Magelang.
• Borobudur Park - the official site of Borobudur.
• Another page about Borobudur Temple.

I have taken some pictures too when I visited my hometown during summer vacations.  Enjoy the pictures….

My mother and brother at our house in Magelang

My brother at our house in Magelang

A local citizen riding his bicycle (may be just came back from the market)

A very nice view in Magelang…

The most popular hotel in Magelang.  If you ever visit Magelang, I really recommend this hotel.

Today I bought a 1-liter box of orange juice in a big supermarket.  When I buy a food product, usually I check the expired date.  I don’t what was wrong with me this morning.  I didn’t check the expired date of my orange juice.  Guess what…. when I arrived at home and check the date, it is written "05-Sep-05".  So the product has been expired for more than 4 months already.  Unbelievable…. isn’t it?

Can you imagine that?  A very big supermarket in Canada sells expired products.  What would happen if the person who bought it didn’t check the expired date?

Anyway, since my first day in Canada, I have been a little bit frustrated with "expired date".  I have visited many supermarkets in Vancouver, Canada, and I have seen many food products that don’t have expired date.  Yeah, I am not kidding….  Sometimes, I have to spend a couple of minutes, looking for "Best before…" sign.  In some cases, I simply couldn’t find the expired date.  There are two possibilities when I am stuck in this situation: 1) trust the supermarket that they won’t sell expired products; or 2) don’t buy the product.

The following picture shows a food product that don’t have expired date.  It is a pork luncheon meat sold at a supermarket in Vancouver, Canada.  Can you help me finding the expired date?

I am very interested to know, what the policy of Canadian government regarding of "expired date" is.  Do they require all food products to have expired date?  I don’t believe if a country like Canada doesn’t require expired date on every food products.

Today, I took driving test for the fourth times.  Guess what, I failed (again)!!!  It’s time to evaluate what was really wrong.  First time failure is very common.  Second time failure is still acceptable.  How about third time?  May be that is not very common, but in some cases acceptable (because of bad luck, for example).

So what was wrong in my case?  Four times failure!  I wish I would have known what the reasons are.  At the moment, I can only see three possibilities:

• Myself.  May be I am too stupid.  I admit that I am only good in something related to the left brain, like mathematics, programming, physics, etc.  My right brain is somehow not well developed.  That’s why many of my friends said, "You look like a dummy, but in fact you are quite smart".  I am not sure whether driving is related to the left brain of the right brain.  Another possibility is because I don’t have self-confidence.  I am a type of person who feel confident when I am sure that I can do it.
• Instructor.  I am not blaming my instructor.  He has been teaching driving for more than 20 years.  He is also an approved driving instructor in British Columbia province.  Based on these facts, he should be a qualified instructor.  Anyway, I will change my driving instructor.  Let’s see whether this will help or not.
• Examiner.  There are so many driving examiners who are very picky.  Just one small mistake can cause us to fail.  My examiner today is one of them.  Why?  In my first driving test, the examiner pointed out what my mistakes was.  However, she also gave compliments to some of my maneuvers.  In the third driving test, my examiner said that I almost passed the test (the exam sheet was almost empty).  Unfortunately, I broke the law by turning right at "no right turn on red" intersection.  Today, I was driving with the same styles as last time… guess what, my exam sheet was full of mistakes.

Well, I have spent more than C$1,300 to prepare and take driving test, but still no luck.  I have to spent a few hundred bucks more to prepare the next one.  Just wish me luck next time.  May the Force be with me….

Vancouver is voted as the best city to live in year 2005 by EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit).  Read also the news from CNN and BBC.  The second place and third place are Melbourne and Vienna respectively.  The study was mainly based on the political climate, so the cities with lower perceived threat of terrorism will be ranked higher.

I have been living in Vancouver since 6 months ago.  Well, actually I am not living at the heart of Vancouver, but in Richmond, one of Vancouver’s suburb areas.  Vancouver is definitely a very nice city (I think everybody agrees).  It has spectacular natural scenery on the one side and a busy metropolitan area on the other side.  Unfortunately, I don’t really like living here for some reasons (read also my blog).

A long time ago (in a galaxy not so far way), one of my best friends told me there five factors that make us enjoy living in a city (or country).  What are they?

• Language.  Language is very important because you can’t live in a country if you don’t speak the language.  I had this experience when I came to Germany for the first time.  It was a very though time since I don’t know German language at all.  It’s true that you can learn the language while living there, but it is not as easy as it sounds.  Some people, like, me, cannot learn a new language so quickly.
• Weather.  You don’t want to live in a city that has extreme temperature, do you?  A city with very high temperature during summer and very low temperature during winter is not nice.  For you who live in a tropical country may not consider weather at all.  However, I can tell you it is very important factor.  I have lived in a tropical country for almost 25 years, and I never checked weather forecast when I was there… :)  Now, I realize that weather forecast is an important thing to check before you go out.
• Career.  Of course, all of us need a job no matter in which city we are living.  However, there are some cities (and countries) where it is too difficult to find a job.  Even if we can find a job, sometimes the salary is not good enough to live comfortably.  In some other cities, the living cost might be very high, so even if you receive a high salary, you still cannot live comfortably.  So, we should have a balance between our salary and the living cost.
• Friends.  Do you want to live in a city where you know nobody there?  You won’t have a social life living in such condition.  It’s true that we can make new friends while living in a new city.  Sometimes, it is also not that easy because of culture differences and some other factors.
• Entertainment.  We all have to work, but we need entertainment too.  It can be watching movies, sports, reading books, window shopping, or many other things.  Don’t laugh when I say "watching movies".  My hometown in Indonesia doesn’t have a cinema at all.  I do like watching movies, but I can’t do that in my hometown.  We did have some cinemas more than 10 years ago, but all of them have filed bankruptcy.

Of course, there are still some other factors.  Each of us may have our own lists too when considering a city to live.  Some people may say Vancouver is the best city to live, but some others might say it is not….

I have been living in 7 cities in 4 different countries so far, and here is my version of the best city to live.

1. Singapore
2. Vancouver, Canada
3. Yogyakarta, Indonesia
4. Jakarta, Indonesia
5. Stuttgart, Germany
6. Magelang, Indonesia
7. Bochum, Germany

Hello all….  Happy New Year to all of you….

This is my first posting in 2006.  I have been blogging since last year.  I will still be blogging this year, and hopefully more regularly (my target is one posting every week).  Looking back at year 2005, here is the summary of my blog activity:

• Antony’s Mobile Blog - 13 postings - This is my personal blog about mobile phone technology and wireless industry.  The postings include mobile phones trends, tutorials and mobile development.
• Antony’s Personal Opinion - 14 postings - This blog contains postings from many different topics that interest me, including economy, finance, engineering, computer, etc.  They might jump from one topic to another completely different topic.
• Antony’s Personal Life - 16 postings - This is a blog about my personal life, starting from my daily life, career and love.  If you want to know about my personal life, then this might be a starting point.

In total, there were 43 postings since March 2005.  It means 4.3 blogs every month or about one every week.  It’s not a bad number, isn’t it?