Billy came and stayed with us on Friday night a few weeks a go. He brought two rucksacks, one contained his laptop, and the other contained his stuffs for the night. Inside his laptop, he had a DVD of The Mighty Boosh. On Saturday morning he made us sit down and watch the show. I [...]

I blame Scotland for my weight gain. This country seems to have endless collection of sweets and savouries, and none of them are healthy! It seems that all sin ingredients are mixed together to create devilish, high calorie deserts. I thought STP and deep fried Mars bar are the only bad sweets, but everyday [...]

In Indonesia, when we go to restaurants, there are no other ways to grab waiter’s attention but calling {this can go from mbak (sister) or ibu (ma’am), to unnecessary flirtatious remarks like sayang (darling) or cantik (gorgeous)}, waving (hand or napkin), or – these are extremely rude manners – whistling, clapping and flicking your [...]

Note:
The original article was posted on Thursday, 20 March 2008. In regards to those who has requested me to remove the family reference, this article is rephrased, although I try not to go too far from where I stand and believe.
After the article is published as of today, I will remove all comments generated [...]

My previous post sparked lots of heavy comments. First came Oigal, who said I was nasty and too personal. He asked me to remove my reference regarding his family from my blog.
I did reply to his comment, saying that I was in rush to go to funeral (and it was Good Friday for goodness sake), [...]

I am embarrassingly watching American Idol now. I have never been a fan, and only saw the show on and off, if it happens to be on telly, but since a few weeks a go I decided to tape it so I wouldn’t miss it (people in Indonesia would not be familiar with Sky TV; [...]

I have landed on a blog written by an Malaysian expat who now lives in Jakarta. Some of her articles tickled me and I just realized that is how people see us, Indonesians. One that makes me smile is to read her amazement to see the ladies who go to shopping malls with big hair [...]

My friend Anja has just arrived from Holland a couple of months a go. She learns that even though she speaks impeccable English, she still can’t understand what Scottish people say half of the time. Well I couldn’t blame her, I’ve been here for over 8 months and I still don’t get it sometimes. And [...]

There was a big hoo-ha a while a go when Fatih raised an old issue about anonymous blogging. He particularly dislikes those who blog anonymously on sensitive issues, like politics or religions, and suspect that they have hidden agendas. Fatih’s post generated ripostes and comments from expats in Indonesia.
Unspun, stands firmly behind Fatih, showed how [...]

One of the Scottish national symbols is kilt, a traditional garment of modern Scottish and Celtic (more specifically Gaelic) culture typically worn by men (from Wikipedia).

clipped from www.macgregorandmacduff.co.uk
The original kilt was known as the feileadh mhór (philamore) or “big wrap”. After the ban and during the 1800s the kilt evolved into something like [...]

The Fake Trade, a documentary by Channel 4, written and directed by Nick Hornby (yes, the author of Fever Pitch, About a Boy, and High Fidelity), was aired on Monday night, 3 March 2008. It took us to see the inside of the counterfeit industry.
The documentary opened with BASCAP arranging the biggest anti-counterfeit conference, and [...]

Shortbread is a Scottish-origin biscuit which is made from white sugar, a lot of butter, and plain white flour. These sweet cookies are usually served with tea (hot tea, I may have to add, since for Asians tea sometimes is served cold) in the afternoon, or for a snack.
Due to its popular demand, shortbread is [...]