The Journey Thus Far

It's been almost a month since my last post. It has to be the most productive 1 month that I have ever spend in Jakarta. Usually, it is all about resting, recuperating and lazing about. However, this time, it has all been about work. In the short 1 month, I have worked 3 shops for my business, done up my website and managed to restock several times.

I realised that Jakartans are very fashion savvy people and love to be unique and prefer to look expensive since they are familiar with designer labels and celebrity. They are not too edgy or fashion forward and like to look proper and well put together. They love their accessories from necklaces to hairbands to shoes and bags. They are also very smart with 'investing' their money on purchases. These traits are good for me as it means they are constantly updating their wardrobes and looks to stay on trend. It is thus, not too ideal for me to put out pieces that are too edgy or avant garde.

Right now, I am focusing on the marketing aspect of my business, by adding more people into my group and posting an ad on a popular teen magazine 'Looks'. I know I have great stuff on offer, now I just need the clientele to offer it to. Another thing that I am focusing on is finding great wholesalers for my clothes.

Spending money is really easy here in Jakarta for me as there are so many things (little little things) and food (little little bites) that I love! Luckily, these things can be really cheat (if you know where to get them for cheaper) and I love to hunt for them. Window shopping itself is a treat as the malls offer so much and are ginormous!!

Recently, I acquired a croc skin red boston bag with removable strap!! LOVE! It is probably my first croc skinned bag and also my first red bag (it is more like deep burgundy and masculine)! It is also studded, which makes it unique. LOVE LOVE LOVE! I was unpacking my stuff and found so many of my pre-loved canvas totes. The good thing is I can sell them =). I have this Sailor themed tote that I used to use everyday as it has pockets on the front for my water bottle and wallet and keys. There are a couple of other ones that I may let go since I have not used them for a while...

I shall sort that out soon, once I got time!

Only Boy In The World

Ache is my body. Sleep I crave. Overjoyed I am.

The moving is done!! Not an easy feat for only two days!!! We rented a van and did the moving all by ourselves. On Saturday, we had al late start and went only 2 trips. On Sunday, it was the killer as we had to move the bed, the couch, the 50” plasma TV, the fridge and the washing machine!!! We ended up going to bed at 3 AM!! The next day, we had to wake up at 8 AM to return the van keys, zzzz. On top of that, we have to clean the old house (yucks) and organise the things we moved in the new house (more work!!). This will be done throughout the course of this week, zzz.

Despite the ‘happening’ weekend, my Monday was equally happening as I went to Rihanna’s concert!! It is 3 and a half hour of music extravaganza than gets louder and louder throughout the night. The opening act was Far East Movement which I am not a big fan off. Other than the ever annoying ‘Like A G6’ song, I have no clue what they are singing for 30 minutes. However, it is so good to see Asians representing!!

The act was then followed by Calvin Harris, who is amazing! Makes me wanna be a DJ and spin for a crazy crowd! Then Rihanna finally came to stage. It started out really good as she performed hits after hits. Then at the last 30 minutes, it sort of got downhill as the base and sound system got so loud that she seemed to be screaming instead of singing. The performances felt rushed too. All in all, it as great value for money as you get 3 acts and 3 and a half hours of entertainment. The crowd is really young and beautiful (mostly) and perhaps too young for my liking as it felt like on average, everyone is about 19 years old and still in school.

I am flying tomorrow night!!! Can’t wait to start my new life! I just found out that a good friend of mine is going to London for holidays with his girlfriend! UGH! Sooo jealous!!!! If only I have the time and money to go, boohoo. All my money has gone into capital to start off my business. Even if I don’t have the time, I would have loved to either ask him to help me buy the Prada briefcase or even the Chanel J12 if I have the money! They are sooo much cheaper there! Unfair, unfair, unfair!!! Its like crying over spilled milk! Over spilled Prada! No fair! I wanna go too!!

Technically I have been on holidays for the past 4 months, which is reason enough on why I should not go. Firstly, 4 months of no income is devastating to my already shrinking Chihuahua sized account. Secondly, I am wasting more precious time if I go. I don’t deserve to go as I have not done anything productive to deserve a holiday like this. Damn! Anyways, London is not in my agenda for 2011. It’s just that it is rare to find another mate who is going at the same time. Oh well. Plus the current cold weather is a serious turn off, ewk! I am going to sleep now and I am not even sleeping on this London thing! There will be next time!!

Want you to make me feeeeeel, like I’m the only boy in the world~

Wall by wall

Crazy moving day. Sometimes I wonder if having many 'earthly possessions' run in my family. It must be in the genes as I realised that even after I have sent all my things away, there is still so many bloody things that my sister and this current house has that needs to be moved!!! Grrr... it is never ending and make me fantasise about the perfect world where I have the luxury of simply packing a suitcase to move. Yet, this perfect world will never exist as my undies alone will fill that suitcase. Zzzzz.

The new apartment in Toorak is unreal by the way. Minutes away from all the good cafes, restaurants and drinking spot in Chapel Street. The only problem is there is too many car traffic in that area and it can get noisy on the weekend nights with party goers. The crowd is beautiful and young and it is a posh area with nice cars lining the roads. Chapel Street used to be but no longer is a place I like to go. I am not sure why but I don't find the shopping there exciting or any special. Just like Oxford Street in Sydney, I find those places too dry and inorganic.

Recently I have been listening to some oldies/classic Mandopop songs. I never liked those particular songs that much in the past when they were hot. However, today, I find them meaningful and relevant to my current point in life. I have been listening to Daniel Chan's 'Bu Wo Xing Fu', 'Xiang Feng Yi Yang De Nan Zi' and Na Ying's 'Zheng Fu' and 'Meng Yi Chang'. The latter is my current favourite. It is such a deep song with complex lyrics although it sounded like a lullaby at first. Can't wait to 'belt' them in karaoke wakakakaka.

My last two days in Melbourne. There is no strong emotions at all. It seems like I am over it here. I feel like I am more than ready to close this chapter. When I am driving around, the faces and places, does not strike any emotions. The buildings and familiar spaces, have been there as I remembered and used to be a destination but no longer. My relationship ties to the people here are fulfilled and there is no more unfinished business... not after today. The only question in my heart is, what will I miss when I go away??

I try to conjure a list of things that I love here. I am sure I will miss certain restaurants here as I do get cravings for them once in a while. I am sure I will miss some shops here as I get heaps of things there. I think I will miss the cool weather here and the opportunity to wear a nice coat although I am constantly complaining about the cold. I may miss the relaxed lifestyle and the friendly people of Melbourne. Then, will I miss my friends here, even though I constantly feel loneliness. Yet... these are all speculations of what I will miss. The only way to find out is to be away from this place.

Then there are the exciting yet uncertain thoughts about my future. Will my business be truly successful in Indonesia? Will my life be too comfortable in Jakarta with my wealthy parents in their mansion? Will I lose my motivation to keep improving my skills and myself? Will I find happiness there? What drama awaits me in this foreign yet familiar place? Wall by wall, I will need to break down the negative thoughts and build my empire. I am sure there will be plenty of challenges ahead of me.

Now, I like to thank God for my life. I am grateful for all that He has given me. He has blessed me with opportunities and choices. I am well aware that I have many a times not chosen the choices that are pleasing to His eyes. Yet, mistakes happen for a reason and my character is built on those mistakes and overcoming my weakness by first identifying them. In him I trust, I shall fear no evil =).

I am truly my worst critic. It does not matter if my mom and dad will be proud of my work, as I know that I need to be proud of my work to live with myself. And if I am proud of my work (eventually), my parents will be too. I know that I have been blabbering about family values and stuff a lot recently but it is certainly a topic I like to explore. A family is like a dynasty. There is politics, drama and so dynamic and I feel like it is time for me to participate in my family matters.

All Set

OMGeeee! A Zone 1 two hour train/tram ticket is $3.70!!! Rip-off!!

Good news!! We got an 'Ok' to re-open our bazaar stall in Thamrin City!!! This week has been good news week! My 16 boxes of preciousness arrived safely in Jakarta! My sister got her apartment in Toorak and I manage to sell most of the unwanted furnitures! I also sold my bed, which means I am bed-less and will be sleeping on my couch for the next few days, zzzz. I am also still waiting for my parcel to arrive from the US and it better arrive by Monday!! Damn, if not, I will need to waste $50 to mail it back to Jakarta which will be super duper annoying!

5 more days in Melbourne... 5 more busy days actually. Tomorrow I have to visit this gun shop to check something out for my brother. Then I will be going to the gym before meeting up with my friend for dinner. Korean food, yum. I will miss Korean food when I am in Jakarta as it is not prepared by real Koreans. However, I am planning a trip to Korea possibly end of this year!! Yay.

On Saturday and Sunday, it will be moving and cleaning galore, zzzz. Busy, busy, busy. On Monday, I have Rihanna's concert which I am super looking forward to and on Tuesday night, I am flying!! Most of my things are in my luggage bags already. I only have some toiletries and essentials out. All set!

I realised that in the last few days, I have been doing alot of reflection and commentary on the past and have not thought alot about the rest of 2011 other than my work plans. I work hard and I need to play hard too. Hmmm, the holiday to Korea end of 2011 is a good start. I should start planning =).

For sure I need to be jet-setting! As much as I will love my life in Jakarta, I think I need to get out of it once every 3 months. The only trade-off is the money used for travelling can be saved or spent of things that I like. Thus, I will be splitting my income into 5 sections:

Part 1: Savings. Part 2: For my parents. Part 3: Expansion of business. Part 4: Travels. Part 5: Retail. I definitely need to work on Part 1 primarily as I am starting and having a base saving is important for my security. Part 4 and 5 is actually more like a reward once the business is running smoothly.

The possibilities are endless! I finally get to be who I am meant to be: the boss, owner, buyer, retailer, shop owner, model, spokes person, socialite and mogul fabulosity (like Kimora, lol). Can't wait to get the moving done and over with and be home in Jakarta!!!! I am all set and there are no excuses.

Start!

Another cold day. I woke up bright and early this morning... at 10 AM. This is actually a record as I have been waking up at 12- 1 in the afternoon daily!! For some reason, I felt wide awake and energetic! In fear that this feeling may be gone in the afternoon, I ran out to the house and went to the gym!! I braved the cold and it was well worth it.

This time next week, I will be boarding my flight to Jakarta with Malaysia Airlines. I have flown Malaysia Airlines many times, twice on Business Class and the rest on Economy. It is not the best airline but it is great value for money. I remember when I was 18, I will be awake the whole 9 hours in flight, watching the movies. Today, at 24, sadly I will be asleep at least 7 hours of the flight. Zzzzzz. It amazes me what difference 6 years make. I have never in my life the luxury of travelling light. This time again, I will be toting so much hand-carry and my check-in will be maxed out. Damn.....

So many things to do when I am back. I have 16 boxes waiting for me to unbox and store. I am not sure which room I will be occupying at the moment. There are two choices. I can use the office that is currently under-utilized as a storeroom as my office/ storage space. This is not a big room and is on the ground floor of my Jakarta 'manor'. However, it boast great natural light which will be perfect for my drafting and painting. The second option is the reverse. It is located on the second floor and currently under-utilized as a store room too. This room is meant to be a karaoke/entertainment room as it is huge and padded with sound proof wall. It does not have alot of natural light but is ideal as a floor space for my many things, wardrobe and storage. Decisions, decisions...

Right now, me and younger sister are nervously awaiting the answer from the Event Organiser of Thamrin City (a shopping mall). I hope that we have good news tomorrow regarding us being able to reopen our shop there. It has great crowd and is the ideal target market for our current products. I will need to start right away and open shop if we got the ok.

I have to fix my online shop and at the same time, hunt for a physical shop to rent too in the mean time. I have the floor plan all planned out. It will be a simple shop, with the theme white and vintage. Display items (such as statuettes, trunks and random trinkets) will be spray painted white. There will be a small changing room with white curtains, rows of white racks and two coloured couches. It is very simple yet chic. The hardest part is finding the location for the shop that has great crowd and reputation!

This is truly the most excited and not nervous 'first day' of work I had ever been. It marks a new lifestyle for me! And for that, I have been thinking of a tattoo to commemorate this. Several ideas come to my mind but I think I like a band on my left leg, just right above my ankle. In the band, i would like 'Faith, Hope, Love' to be inscribed in it. This is a verse from the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:13 that says 'Three things will last forever-- faith, hope and love-- and the greatest of these is love. I have not gone into designing the band yet but I shall look into it.

It is a new start. Be happy for me because I am.

Hello, Goodbye

The weather forecast was wrong. It is still freezing cold and wet today... and will be cold tomorrow and the day after. I must be part cold-blooded as I don't function fully under the cold. There is no motivation!!

I find it intriguing how it is so easy to start writing about the weather. It is a rather traditional way to write a diary. A blog is like a diary. It can contain journal articles and random thoughts too. A reflection or retrospect that contains highly processed thoughts and ideas.

Is it possible that after all these notes to myself, I find myself back to square one? The lessons learnt, the pain, the hurt and the dilemma. In a moment of weakness, they just diminish, like they never ever happened. Like they don't matter. Later on, I am left with nothing but regret. We comfort ourselves saying that it is a good lesson learnt and next time, we will do otherwise and emerge the victor... not the victim. However, the cycle only continues.

We are who we are. Yet we often want to better ourselves and improve. We play scenarios of our past failures over and over again in our head and we make sure that in those situations, we are doing what we should have done. This only soothes those sleepless nights and provides some hope in our hearts. But, isit really gonna end? In our head when we say enough is enough, is it really... enough?

You ask yourself, 'Am I sadistic? Do I have a problem? Why did I?' There is no answer to these questions. There are no closure. It opened with a 'Hello' but there was never a 'Goodbye'. Why is there never a 'Goodbye'? Yet we so eagerly press on to the 'Hello'. There are so many things left unsaid. So many dreams that are yet to be fulfilled. Isit pride that is at stake? Isit love? It seemed like a never ending battle. And you always the victim, the loser, the forgotten and the forsaken.

There is no 'Goodbye'. There may never be a 'Goodbye'. But we continue this search for the elusive unicorn. And in doing so, we let ourselves slip... into the never ending cycle.

Resolution

Nine more days!!

Melbourne has really erratic weather patterns. It really annoys and affected me.

On Saturday, it was the hottest day in the past two weeks and thus, I had to stay at home as I don't want to get exposed to the sun. I am an extremely sun-sitive person and exposure to the sun will mean that I need to patch an SK-II mask later in the evening which ain't cheap at $22 a pop.

Sunday, was really cold! It was drizzling too and a miserable day like that, I had to stay home. How can the weather change so much in a span of 24 hours?? Beats me. I am used to it. At least I get to stay at home when the weather sucks. Luckily, according to the weather forecast, the weather will be perfect for the next 3 days. Not too sunny, not too cloudy, not too hot and not too cold.

I realise that I have not thought about my resolutions for 2011! The last month has been full of drama and my initial plans for 2011 turned out to be different. With so much time on my hands, I have thought of some concrete resolutions. I am not sure how achievable they are at this moment but this will serve as a reminder and a goal.

1) To earn AUD$1000 a month equivalent in Jakarta. This is the most basic amount I am going to let myself earn for the next 3 months (March, April and May). I can definitely hit this as I already had invested my capital and ready to go. I will double this amount for the 3 months after this (June, July and August).

It is not alot of money as I earn alot more here in Australia but it is a good start. It is also a lot of money in Indonesia and I am saving on rent and bills as I will be living with my folks.

2) To get my driver's license. Lol I lied to everyone at work that I can drive, but the truth is I am only an L plater. I can drive but I certainly need practice.... and a license. This can be quite challenging as I have someone to drive me around Jakarta everyday and I don't use public transport and traffic in Jakarta is madness, which makes me very unmotivated to learn how to drive. On the other hand, driving is an essential skill in Jakarta, so I will need to learn it. Thus, by June this year, I will be driving!!

3) If I am going to drive, I need to do it instyle. I need a car that is as hot as myself (but of course). I need a cabriolet. I have decided on the car of choice. I am not a big fan of big sedans or vehicles and I am only driving in a city, thus a small fuel efficient car is sensible. An Audi A3 Cabriolet will suit me perfectly. It is not a really cheap car which is why I think it is not a wise choice. A wise choice will be like Honda Jazz or Suzuki Swift. They are Japanese, have high resell value, low maintenance and not very expensive.

Hmmm decisions. I shall strive for the Audi. Not only it is spelled like my name, it fits me more aesthetically. I hope that Santa, who resides in my bank account, will be kind to me in Christmas in 2011.

4) Expansion of my business. I like to rent a shop in a good location where people appreciate it and there is a good flow of crowd. Me and my business partner aka my sister has been researching several spot but they seemed unsuitable. There is this one place that is ideal but the rent is over the roof and too much competitors.

5) Be happy.

I think that is all i hope for now. With my family, it is already a cause for celebration. If i can fulfil these resolutions, it will be 5 cherries on the topping!