Keep Trying, Keep Praying and dont forget to Give Thanks

Living in Karachi OR maybe you can read as living in hotel at Karachi city become more enjoyable, got friends in here ... he's from the same university plus he bring also a bunch of joy, which is another friends of him ... so we become like family in here ... chating at the lobby room everynight before sleep, talking anything from job until our country.

So walking around near hotel is not frightening anymore, since all become familiar with me. Just wave your hand and smile, this can be mean you come to this city as friend ... gee, looks like the story of Winnetou, the Apache Knight on Karl May book.

And my day become a normal again, except the food ... cause still giving me some trouble when i eat the local food. That's why I always count on my breakfast, my noodle cup and KFC ... the colonel help me to survive in this city, thanks colonel ... love you very much ... muach muach muach 8-).

My manager offer me another position after this job at Karachi, to become a Resident Engineer at company on the other site of Singapore ... and the environment is slightly different, is windows environment. But as my collague says it's become more challange for me to learn more knowledge ... rather than stuck in one area. So it's a good opportunity to learn new knowledge and seek the new frontier ... *can you hear the startrek's soundtrack ?* ... he he he he he 8-). But now still dealing with the one who have a rule, for increment of my salary ... the reason is the place is far away from my home, i think i didnt get any incentive salary anymore plus it's almost 4 years working on this company without salary increment ... so keep trying, keep praying and dont forget to give thanks for all He gave me until now ... and one more think, keep smiling ... cause this will make me more handsome 8-). Wish me luck for this opportunity.

My friend Micosan, she also trying to get a better condition on her life ... she's already trained with Oracle stuff ... really cool ... envy on her sometimes; cause on her age, she already got some knowledges when I still struggle on my job, get a little knowledge from my experiences and trying to survive on the same age of her. Her morale is down yesterday since she felt cheated by the job agent, I know this will happened on every people that trying to looking a job ... so I just share my experiences to her; to keep trying, keep praying ... since this is life, sometime you get want you want in the snap but sometimes other bad people stab at the back on the other people, cheat people ... I just only pray to this people to come to the right way OR maybe the force give a return to them ... he he he he 8-). Good karma always gives a happy life, bad karma ... you know what's the bad karma is .... not comment on this one 8-).

From her blog, I found this one :

for those things we have....we treasure....
for those we hope for... we pray....
for those we are about to get.... be thankful....
for those people who support us.... we cherish....
for those we lose.... be strong....
this is life....

So my friends, keep trying, keep praying and dont forget to give thanks.
Wish you all the best and force be with you always.

With warm & best regards,
Karachi, Medio January 2005

Saint Patrick Cathedral Karachi

Last Saturday I went to Saint Patrick Cathedral in Karachi, the cathedral is not big as the cathedral in my home town but it's still give me some extra felling in my heart ... it's God's house 8-). The building with two towers beside, stand passing the days and years from 1878.

And again with the pastel colour, this cathedral looks so beautiful ... old but still give a charm and elegant.

In front of this cathedral, there's a monument build on 1935 ... a monument from a white marble with statues ... and must be a good one, cause the face on that statues looks real ... must be a masterpieces on that era.

On the center there's my idol ... Jesus .... with two cute little angels flying on his head with the crown of the king on the earth and heaven ... and there's a word on the pillar behind them 'thy kingdom come' ... geee, it's so peace in that place when you watching Him.

I can imagine when this monument is a new one, it will be shinning and bright ... cause on that moment all is polished well ... must be a breathtaking scenery.

I saw also a little angel with the broken arm & wings, it's a sad thing that i saw on that monument. The angel also looks sad, maybe he will ask 'why me ?' ... and we just silent forever ... only God knows.

Well, you can see the pictures that i taken on that moment.
Just visit the url below and click on 'Saint Patrick Cathedral Karachi' :

http://photos.yahoo.com/awsmile

Enjoy and God bless you all.

Tiramisu, you keep my spirit high 8-)

As i informed to you on my previous blog, the tiramisu is a desert cake from Italy and the amazing thing is no oven needed to make this delicious cake ... blackforest, banana muffin with the walnut is the my favourite but still need oven that I dont have it in my home in SGP.

My friends, here is the famous tiramisu recipe :

Servings: 4
Level of difficulty: Intermediate
Preparation Time: 35 minutes plus 2 hours chilling
Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients main
150ml strong black coffee , chilled
3 tbsp coffee liqueur , such as Tia Maria or Kahlua
200g sponge finger biscuits
75g caster sugar
5 tbsp water
2 egg yolks
250ml double cream
250g mascarpone cheese
unsweetened cocoa powder , to dust

Method

1. Mix the coffee and the coffee liqueur. Place the sponge fingers in a single layer in a shallow dish. Pour over the coffee mixture, turning the fingers a few times to coat, then leave to soak.
2. Put the sugar and water into a small heavy-based saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil, and then simmer until softball stage is reached - 115°C on a sugar thermometer, or until you can knead a soft ball between your finger and thumb (dip ½ teaspoon of syrup into iced water before kneading).
3. Using an electric whisk, beat the egg yolks for 3-5 minutes until very pale and smooth. Gradually add the sugar syrup, and then continue beating until cold.
4. Mix the cream and mascarpone, then add to the egg and sugar mixture whisking thoroughly.
5. Divide half of the mixture evenly between four individual dessert dishes. Add a layer of sponge fingers to each dish and layer with some more of the mascarpone mixture. Put in the fridge to chill for 2 hours.
6. Dust with cocoa powder just before serving.

1st week and bored already

Really ... it's boring in here and it's accumulated ... no delicious food, no beauty scenery, no friends to hanging around, no mall (compare to SGP 8-) ... but the most problem is i feel not secure in here.

So most all of my time in here, I spend in my hotel or just walking around in here not far as 2 km from here.

For the food, the rice is not the same as in south east asia ... the size is longer, the texture is a little bit like a chewing gum ... not soft texture ... geee, i always love a texture rice like japan's rice .... chubby and soft plus the aroma is really awsome 8-). The prawn also not fresh, it's dry and not juicy. The cow/lamb knucle still have a smell, not like 'gulai kikil' in my country ... it's really amazing taste if you have the gulai kikil' with the warm rice and the famous 'sambal hijau' in my country.

But until now, I really want to know what's the famous dish in here.

The good one that I found in here is 'bbc food' channel, it's a great channel that i ever have in my life ... all about the glorious food ... and guess, here is what i've got from that channel ... a tiramisu recipe ... the delicious desert from Italy, it's like a blackforest from German ... but the nice one, it's doesnt need an oven ... he he he he he he 8-) ... so I will try this one when back to my home.

So here am I at 8 o'clock in the morning, just wait a day to passing by.
No one in here, just me lonely in my room.
Waiting a perfect day to go home and make a tiramisu cake.

Karachi's Smiles

The Pakistani's people like other people is Asia, hospitallity is important for them. So you can see smiles from them when you meet them ... even the smiles at the behind of their beard 8-). The way they dressed, some of them looks like Afghanistan's people (complete with the famous hat) and some of them looks like India's people.

Here is some note from what I saw in Karachi :

1. for man, you don't need to carry a razor in here, almost all the men in here have a beard, some of them have a red beard ... cool huh 8-)
2. very very becarefull to cross the road, some junction even don't have a zebra cross, so it's very lucky if you put J-walk as your hobby 8-)
3. dont be afraid if you saw donkey on the street, since they use as a transportation in here, don't be afraid also when you saw monkey, they use monkey for entertainment, so dont think you're in the zoo ... 8-)
4. almost all the taxi in here without the meter, so you need to bargain to have a good price, and don't too surprise if you find out the age of the taxi is more than 30 years old
5. can find the piracy VCD/DVD/CD very easy and off-course with the good quality 8-)
6. the gas polution from vehicles and dust is everywhere
7. prepare some mineral water on your hotel, since the water in here taste awfull and it's getting worse when you boiled the water ... mineral water is a must
8. my friend got hepatitis after he traveled to here, so please very becareful on what you eat. Cleanup your spoon & fork and always pray before eat 8-)

Basically everything will be OK in here or everyplace when you take care yourself.

Enjoy your life,
Adisuria Wangsadinata

Karachi Me, Karachi You

The first step to go further

A new day to celebrate, since this day is my first journey to go north a little bit further ... more closer to Santa Claus's home (north pole). But the worse thing come, the flight delayed ... the officer just told the passengers : 'until further notice, please come again 1 hour to get the last update' ... and this is cool, even the big airlines have this messages to their customer. So I just sit and relax, especially after they gave me the lunch voucher 8-) ... enjoy my mixed grilled, soup of the day, cheese cake plus ice lemon tea.

1 hour later I come back to the line and they inform the flight could be at 1535 hrs ... more than 3 hours late from the schedule (1215 hrs), so again I must always be calm and relax. Do check-in, put my baggage in there and goto immigration.

After immigration, the first thing to do is find the internet access in there ... create a blog and check my emails plus see the information about Karachi. Since my reference book, the lonely planet give some info about security issue on this city.

And the journey begin at 1645 hrs, it's delayed for 4 hours plus ... it's amazing and this will make me to prepare to walking brisk to catch the plane to Karachi in Bangkok. Come to the plane, sit nicely, close my eyes and keep wishing that everything run alright until I come back to Singapore.

Once they let the passenger to go out from the plane, I'm just walking brisk (almost run) to the transfer gate and jump to the bus that carry me to the plane. The atmosphere is suddenly changed so fast in the bus, cause only 2 people with chinese look ... me and the other passenger 8-) ... but luckly there's another chinese look in the plane & the airline set me to sit with the one of them ... Korean.

So there's a people to talk too, even with the tarzan's language ... he he he he he ... 'no', 'yes', 'ok', 'same-same' is the common words on the conversation with him ... he's a fisherman, cause he inform me that he will work for the company named 'ABC Fishing Corp.' ... cool huh 8-).

The plane arrived at 1130 hrs (almost midnight) ... check-in to immigration, get my baggage, cash-out some of my money to RS (Pakistani Rupee) and find my transport from airport to hotel ... my collague already arrange that for me. But unfortunately, I must pay for RS 1000 for service charges and RS 100 for tips ... 8-( ... so still the service like this need to pay, since from what I know the transportation is free of charge in Singapore ... even in my country.

No choice that I must pay that since on the other reference book that I read, inform to me about 'do not travel on the night from the airport, better to arrange to have a pickup from the hotel OR just stay in the airport until morning'. So it's better to pay that bloody service charges and stay in the hotel ... 8-).

Arrived at the hotel, check-in and meet my collague - JA ... and he do a short briefing first plus give me a bottle of mineral water for surviving on the night ... he tells me do not to drink a water and there's a rust inside of the water boiler ... he he he he he ... hope this is a right place to stay for a month 8-). So after he go to his room, I take a shower, take my dinner which is a mineral water only and after that count sheeps .... one sheep, two sheeps and good night Karachi .. see, you can see how tired i am ... just count two sheep only and i'm in heaven already.

Travel around on the first day

I sleep like a baby, no dream ... it's look like my body on cybernate ... all is shutdown, no activity 8-) and on 0730 hrs wake-up with all power, the battery has been re-charge and I'm ready for activity. So the plan for this day is setup my notebook so I can browsing around on the hotel lobby, buy some food & mineral water to survive in this country, OR meet God at the church ??? 8-).

The amazing scenery is a sunrise that I saw thru my windows and the flying bird like falcon in the sky ... hundreds of them flying in the sky with the heat that has been release from earth ... they flying elegant like eagle ... so i meet my friends in here, since my nick name at the office is 'cute hawk' 8-)

Breakfast will be finished at 1030 hrs, so at 1000 hrs I go down to the cafetaria in front of the lobby. Bread, prata, naan are here ... no rice ... plus some traditional food, orange juices, sweet laazy, western food & fruits ... good breakfast, but KPC mining site still giving me the best breakfast 8-).

The Clifton area is the next destination. And we realiased that Sunday in Karachi is a day for family, so almost all shops are closed ... luckily KFC, McD and some supermarket are open ... so purchase 2 botol of mineral water (@ 1.5 litre), 2 Maggie Chicken Soup, 2 Kit-Kat, 4 cup of noodles ... yup, cup of noodles and this one is import directly from my home town ... and this is a gift from God for me to survive in here 8-).

On the way from / to hotel, I found the beautiful building ... it's a gothic architecture, like a cathedral in my home town ... but the colour is different, the wall with the earth colour with the red colour on the roof ... too bad that I cannot take a picture of this building since my friend warn me not to take it cause the building in front of US embassy ... the security on this area is very tight like Fort Knox 8-).

I take the picture of that building from my room, so you can saw the beauty of that building from a distance.

One thing that you need to know in Karachi is almost every shop in here will be guard by security guard ... at least the guard will carry the shotgun like FN45 or the famous AK47 (completed with the bayonet knife, but off-course not with the combat mode 8-). My comment on this is 'when you come to the place when the people carry a gun, you cannot declare that place as the safe place' ... there's a security issue on this place.

Hope there will be a peace around the world, so everyone can see the beauty of the places without worried about security issue. Peace to the world and to every heart that living on this world.

Cheers,
Adisuria Wangsadinata - Karachi, Pakistan

O Karachi, O Pakistan

Today is my first day to travel outside Singapore ... not to go back to my 'kampong', but goto Karachi, Pakistan.

It's took alot of courages to make my dream come true, to go further and further more from my homebase, to seek the new frontier. But I need this moment since I'm to bored to just sit and watching my 17 inches monitor and make my ear more flat 8-).

Only the God blessing and the prays from my friends will keep me health, alive and survive in the Karachi.