Sensible or plain f*cking Silly

Just back after walkabout in Australia...while I was in Adelaide I spotted this establishment. Sorry for the picture quality but the cab driver did not want to stop!



So they are offering Sensible Funerals, what I wondered was - what is the alternative?

Effing Airports and Bintang

Once again these very nice people at JJ Royal Cafe are allowing me Tobacco, Bintang and Internet before my flight. Off to Adelaide, Australia for business meetings, unfortunately not getting a chance to sight see in either Sydney nor Melbourne where I have friends..

Such is life, will post when I can, but on a plus, my Singapore - Sydney flight ticket says "Main Deck" - Aces, this can only mean the Airbus A380....

Looking forward to it and I'll report back if it as good as they say.

Back shortly!

Lane Discipline

Does it exist, does it fuck!

Taken while my driver tries to negotiate the roundabout on Metro Pondok Indah, buggered if I know how they manage it....




On another subject, my daughter saw her first dead bodies yesterday, not draped, still bleeding after a minibus and a bike collided. Due to rubberneckers, not people trying to assist, the school bus was virtually parked at the scene of the accident, allowing the children to witness the horror that is driving skills in Jakarta.

Indonesia, where the hard shoulder is the fast lane!

America has the Mars Lander - Indonesia has...

Indonesia launched its first, experimental rocket last Monday from a location in West Java, the space centre presumably hidden from prying eyes with a sliding lake on an extinct volcano in James Bond’s “You Only Live Twice”

Needless to say, the worlds first questions were “WTF” They feared that an Intercontinental Sambal delivery system had been tested and the fear was tangible. However, within a few days it was assessed that Indonesia's recent rocket launch presented no security threat and did not mean Jakarta would use the technology for weapons..

Apparently Indonesians are serious about developing a world class space programme, like other Asian countries. The ability to launch their own satellites to allow unlimited Sinetron to the masses is essential to the countries development.

While Koreans have just launched their first astronaut (albeit with a little Russian assistance) other countries are in for a bit of the action as well. The Indians are getting ready to build their own crew capsule for putting astronauts in space. Currently Indonesia buys its rockets from India, although recent photographs of Mumbai’s Mission Control show there is much yet to be done.



The head of Indonesia’s National Aeronautics and Outer Space Institute's Cooperation Division, said that the launch was successful.

“We launched in early morning there was no wind, no rain, it was very good conditions” He continued “ Pak Hamid, the Sate Man did a roaring trade around the launch pad and the rocket has been loaded with all the unsold copies off the Presidents last CD in case there is unintelligent life en-route” .

Apparently the launch was the first stage of a five-year programme to enable Indonesia to launch its own satellites into space.

Now, correct me if I am wrong, there are people to feed, children to educate, diseases to be cured, roads to be repaired, corruption to be eradicated, canals to be built, dams to be strengthened, pollution to be conquered, logging to be stopped, and err, emm many others I suppose. These listed above are “need to’s”

Given the current financial situation and social problems the country has, I thought it may have been better to leave rocket science to others…….

Big Foot in De Hooi

During a beer at De Hooi on Saturday night I met the same guy who had been discussing Marsh Arabs with me a few months back. Despite the fact that I think he is a bit off a dick, I was intrigued when he launched off on a new topic- “Big Foot Sighting’s in Sumatra”

Nearly choking on the Bintang I responded with a quick “get the fuck out off here” and sniggered quietly in my corner. One of the company, otherwise know as “ the voice of moderation and reason “ (because she is not) was backing Pak Marsh Arab up with statistics and sightings which I imagine were Google searched from her imagination and eventually I got my iPod out, slapped the headphones on and watched an episode off “Torchwood” which probably had more realism than the ravings of that pair of lunatics.

Yesterday, as the Bintang haze lifted and the Spam Toasties which had been the breakfast fare had hit the spot, I decided to check up on these “claims” and was moderately surprised that there was in fact a rash of information on the subject on the net!

The first and most obvious was the link below, which is quite interesting but, as the links continued I discovered more UFO and Conspiracy type sites with little snippets of information, even a BBC News report from 2006 in nearby Malaysia, not any hard evidence, but enough to dig deeper.

Bigfoot in Duri

Where the money started to roll in was with a link, suggesting that there was an Indonesian Creature known as “Orang Pedek” which has been hunted by scientist s for years and ironically, may actually have more than an aurora of evidence about it.

Seems, there is a possible link from the Hobbits of Flores (Homo Floresiensis) to these creatures, not that they are anywhere near the height of the Yeti or Sasquatch, more like one meter high with the ability to walk bipedally in a proper human fashion rather than an ape like gait! This led me onto this website, which I actually quite enjoyed.

Project Orang Pendek

Project Orang Pendek is worth a view as there is a lot of other information contained within (check the embedded links), I recommend a visit.

Far as I am concerned, the results are not yet in for this one, but, I may listen a little bit more to "Pak Marsh Arab" and "The Voice of Moderation and Reason" because, although they do spout a load of shit, checking up on it afterwards can be fun!

Are things getting better?

The news this morning broke with the ending off eight years of travel advice warnings regarding Americans visiting Indonesia

"The United States lifted a travel warning placed on Indonesia following a string of deadly terrorist attacks, saying the security situation in the world's most populous Muslim nation had improved.

The last suicide bombing was more than 2 1/2 years ago on Bali island.

"The government ... has disrupted, arrested and prosecuted numerous terrorist elements," U.S. Ambassador Cameron Hume said Sunday in announcing the decision to lift the warning, which was put in place after several bombs went off in the capital, Jakarta, in 2000. "

Good news, certainly for "Murkans" who stay away in their droves when there is the slightest chance they could get scratched by a dog or catch a dose of the Indo Intestines. I fear we are about to become inundated...

In other news, fuel prices did increase jump by almost 30% on Saturday Evening and there is information out that the 27th and the 28th have been identified as the days most likely to have protests and disruptions.

The last time prices were increased, there were threats of all sorts of shit6 happening which never materialised. It is hoped that this is the case again as I cannot be arsed sitting in my car for hours while the noisy fuckwits shut the streets down...



Finally, at 6:30 am Jakarta Time, NASA announced that Mars Explorer had landed.

If you are interested, the feed is here....

NASA TV

Apologies for the terrible photoshop!

Surfing

In the limited time I have each day to surf the internet (No sniggering at the back) I often neglect to mention the sites I really enjoy. Going through my morning routine(Coffee, cigarette, e-mail, news, web) I clicked onto

The Rab Experience

I like Rob, no messing, no bullshit and all round nice guy. Have a click, cheer yourself up! (Worked for me)