I love competition

While Aco was en route to Tokyo for a conference, Alfie and I moved to my parents’ house until he is back next Wednesday. Coincidently, my sister also stayed over for the night and she asked me to drive her to Carrefour to buy a formula for her daughter.

The business nature of retail industry is of small margin and high volume. Due to tight competition, each retail races to increase their sales. A lot of marketing strategies have been taken, to name some: 20% discount for purchase with a certain credit card, buy-one-get-one-free, and the most frequent one: products promotion. This offers particular products at lowered price for a certain period of time -usually 2 or 3 days. The objective is to invite consumers to the store with the expectation that the customer will not go to the store just to buy the advertised product(s). Hopefully (and most of the time) they also buy other stuffs. This strategy is expected to boost their sales and of course their revenue.

If you notice, in Kompas Friday edition there are always one-full-page advertisements by either Carrefour or Hypermart or Giant - the top three hypermarkets. This week, Carrefour offered a 35,000rp discount for a tin of 900gr Pediasure (that's a milk formula for babies). Since there had been many complaints over the availability of the product, it is stated on the ad that one customer can only buy 2 tins. Since my sister wanted to stock up, she asked my other sister to come along.

So, this morning the three of us went to Carrefour quite early to anticipate the crowd and long queue at the cashier. We had this strategy that each of us had to take 2 tins and ring them at different cashier. This worked well. Around 20 minutes we each had a bag with 2 tins of Pediasure :). Mission accomplished. However, looking at the pile of Pediasure over the shelf, my sister couldn't resist the temptation to buy even more. She made a quick count: "Vanessa finished 1 tin a week. Six tins will only last for 1.5month. Let's do another round!"

So yes, we did it again. This time it took longer, but we ended up with 12 tins and saved 420,000rp. We didn't even need to buy other stuff, as Carrefour wished.

I love competition!

How to cheat the time in Jakarta+, 1

That's it. I'm a high degree risk averse person. Not only that, my discount rate is so damn high. Put it another way: I'm paranoid yet impatience.

We live in this small but pleasant house in Karawaci, Tangerang (remember the no-kissing-on-the-street zone? Yes this is that). Geographically, it is close enough to the Cengkareng airport. But boy, I'm no lucky, when it comes to going to the airport, it is, well, far.

I've got two, no three options, basically. One, enter the airport through a backdoor -- this is almost literal, since that means you can enter only if you are authorized or you have that stupid sticker on your windshield. That 'backdoor' is my term for an entrance to the airport supposedly for officials only (or anybody who happens to have sticker, legal or illegally). Many times, I was successful with this entrance, even without a sticker or anything (it's not like I'm a cheap bastard -- well I'm, a little -- but hey I don't fly every day? But being me who preaches the there-is-no-free-lunch at schools, I always promised myself that I should buy that sticker -- never really got time to, though). Here's what I do instead: just wear a suit with formal tie and tell them guards you are in a hurry to catch your flight...

Second, ...

Oops, we have to board.. Sorry, catch you later..

Welcome 2007

Read carefully :)

hard to say I am sorry

I'm always confused how some people use the word “maaf” ('sorry').

One morning when approaching toll gate, my driver asked for toll money. I gave him the money. While he was taking it from me, he said “Maaf”.

On another occasion, on our way to office, the driver suddenly hit the car break, shocking us in the back. Apparently he was trying to avoid a big hole on the road. We, sitting on the rear seats immediately shouted “What's going on?” And he very calmly replied “Ada lubang, Bu” ('There was a hole, Mam'). No, there was no 'sorry', nothing.

Apparently, what ‘sorry’ means to us, is different with what it means to others. I guess sometimes it can mean 'thanks', yes?

And this one is hillarious. Yesterday, the rain was really heavy. As you know, in Jakarta that means traffic jam. Stucked in a street for 20 minutes, our driver took the initiative to make a detour. We agreed, as there seemed no better solution. We did not expect that he actually did not know well the route he took. After two hours of driving nowhere, we were back to where we started. I hopelessly complained: “I thought you knew the route!” And he softly grumbled: “Just now, I took the wrong turn.” No, there was no ‘sorry’ at all... By the time we reached the toll gate, I gave the money. He took it and said, "Maaf"...

Maybe I just don't know the exact meaning of 'maaf'...

What's that, Pa?

Alfie finds something

4 months, 8 kilograms, 67 centimeters

Smackdown

If Alfie grows as fast as this, imagine in the next couple of years :)

By 11 November:

7.1kgs

63cms

Bald Alfie

2 months
6.3 kgs
61 cms

Sleeping Alfie

Sleepy Alfie

Alfie

Preparing for the baby, that is the reason for the long absence of posting. Yes, Anna and I have been occupied by the welcoming of our first baby, Alfie. Our doctors predicted August 15 as Alfie’s birth day, but he chose to come out 3 days later.

Friends and families, please meet Alfie Shan Patunru, the little being who carries our genes. "Alfie" is a variant of alpha or of alif – both indicate “first”. "Shan" is a Mandarin of "mountain". Alfie was born 3.77 kilograms and 51 centimeters with normal delivery. His mother was well, despite the extra pain from vacuum pump. Thank you, God for the added joy to the family.

And there the new life has begun. We have done things to home to welcome the new comer. The bedroom now looks even more compact with a new colorful cabinet for Alfie’s stuff – our home decorator might be disappointed to know that his design had to be significantly altered, but Alfie can explain.

Anna has prepared a stack of music for Alfie. Of course she’s biased toward classics, and me jazz. But we believe Alfie has the right to his own bias. So we play him everything. From Bach to Chopin, from Ella to Diana Krall, from Titik Puspa to Tina Toon -- everything. As it turns out, Alfie seems to like ... ABBA and Fleetwood Mac! Whatever you say, Alfie...

update on the mud

The last two days newspaper headlines read:

• The mud has overflowed one of high school in Porong up to its top!
• No solution on how to stop the spurt out of the mud nor to get rid of it
• The temporary dam was broken and around 6000 people must be evacuated
• Need another 3 months to handle the mud (you think so? No, I don’t)

People who claim yourselves as Government, now you can should do something. Where are you?

oh my mud!

OK, that’s it! Enough reading the news everyday about the Lapindo Brantas’s mud that messes up people live in Sidoarjo, East Java.

It’s been almost 3 months since the hydrogen sulfide gas mixed with ammonia and hot mud spurted out over the residential area in Porong and over Surabaya-Gempol highway. Today, it is reported, the highway is closed due to the high risk of the mud that is already 4 meters high to be overflowed to the road. Companies located around the mud area have lost billion rupiahs, not to mention other companies that have to transport their products through this highway. Also, don’t forget, the lives of people whose house have been flooded since the first day of the spurt.

What would have happened if the company is not Lapindo, but Newmont or Freeport? Still remember couple of months ago when people brutally demonstrated in front of Freeport head office in Jakarta accusing the company of polluting the environment?

Get cornered by your kid? Blame the store next door

There was this stupid commercial on TV. It featured a famous local rockstar singing "Motor juga manusia..." (motorbike is human, too), a twisted version of the rocker's hits, "Rocker Juga Manusia" (rocker is human, too). I was laughing the first time I saw the commercial. But that was it. I didn't care and I forgot already.

Until this morning.

Anna pointed out a reader's letter in Kompas. The reader, a father of a curious son, is complaining about that commercial. He was bugged by his son who kept asking him, "Dad, is motorbike human?". No matter how hard the frustrated father tried to convince the son that "No, motorbike is motorbike. It's not human, Son", the son was stubborn like a stone. "No, Dad, that guy on TV says motorbike is human. It's human, Dad".

So the hopeless father wrote to Kompas. He argued that commercials should not mislead. That the company, PT Astra Honda Motor should be wiser. He even complained that the commercial should not pushed too hard just to have a rising rockstar advertising for it.

I say, get a life.

Every company should be free to advertise in whatever way it likes. You buy if you like and don't if you don't.

As for your kid's bugging you, it sounded like you failed to argue with him. It's your fault, not the store next door.

The real me

My sister sent me this. It is my niece Pacchi's work. Pacchi told her mom: "This is Uncle Aco". I'm flattered.

Signalling on the road

Do you notice bumper stickers? I do. Not only bumper stickers. But also other "signalling instruments" in/on cars. Sometimes they are entertaining. Some examples:

A name of some top university abroad = I went abroad and I have brain.
A name of god-knows-where university abroad = I went abroad and I didn't even need a brain.
A name of domestic, state university = I was on subsidy.
A name of domestic, private university = My parents are rich. Call me.
"Baby on board" sign = Don't rear-end my car, I have baby. Go rear-end others.
A Harley Davidson sticker = I'm a biker, I'm cool.
A military or police badge/insignia = Stay away, me first. (Or: Hey, we're family, don't stop me).
Red-numbered license plate = Who needs licence and traffic rules?
Yellow-numbered license plate = Who needs traffic rules?
B 1 XX = Try me, Idiot!
"My other car is YYY" sticker = I'm cheap bastard.

....

If she can do it really well, she doesn’t do that

We’d been living only the two of use for almost one year. We’d got used to take care of our needs on our own (or more precisely: I could take care of myself, and Aco could himself). We managed to collaborate on weekends, though: I prepare special breakfast, Aco did the laundry. In the afternoon I fold the dried clothes, Aco washed the dishes. Or something like that.

Until a woman knocked at our door one Sunday morning. She said she could be of help: washing dishes, laundering and ironing clothes, etc., for a reasonable pay. I thought, OK, we could give her a try.

So she comes every Sunday morning. She does exactly what she promised: washing dishes, laundering and ironing clothes, plus cleaning floor and bathrooms. Only less than I expect. On all those activities, I, or even Aco, can do a lot better.

I gather, our dining sets have some stain intact. The clothes are not shiny. The floor is too wet. And the ironing isn’t perfect either. I can’t really enjoy the infotainment on TV, because I always have to tell her what to do and what not to do. That function goes to Aco when I think I deserve extra Sunday morning sleep. And he usually complains (“I want to blog”).

I discussed this with Aco one day. He told me, those things should have been predictable – those “less than expected” results from the woman helper. He argued, if she could be really good in all those activities, she would have not appeared knocking on our door in the first place. Because she should have valued her labor higher and demanded higher wage. As a result, she would have applied for a better position, say as a manager in a hotel launderette. With a pay rate that we would not be willing to agree with, as a price for our enjoying our Sunday morning. Working as a helper in our house might be the best the woman can do. Even if her best is not our best. (Aco says, this is the comparative advantage principle)

I think that’s true.

Siem Reap

I am writing this post in one of many internet stalls in Siem Reap, Cambodia. After 3 days being away from computer and the net, I felt isolated. Well, I can't deny that I can't live with the Net. The connection here is quite fast and it costs US75c/h. Not too bad. I have been here for almost 4 days, accompanying Aco who is invited by CALD to give a presentation on some liberal economic things (well, he will explain later, I guess). While he was attending the conference, I walked around by myself to see some interesting facts about this city - and country.

One thing that I can't help with this city is its weather. April is a "killer month" as written by Lonely Planet, my guide for every travel that I do. But, I can't really plan the travel, since I am just a free-rider :) (Aco doesn't think so) . Oh btw, fake version of Cambodia's Lonely Planet issue is sold for US3 in Siem Reap. Unfortunately, I bought it at Changi for US20!

Since it is extremely hot and humid (at noon it is around 38C), I limit my exploration to late afternoon, giving me so little time for looking around. However, after 2 days, I concluded that nothing much can be seen in Siem Reap. The city itself is very small, centered around Siem Reap river. Along the way you can see a lot of hotels, old and new, and some are still under-construction. Obviously, tourism is blooming and definitely Angkor Wat is the magnet. I plan to visit Angkor Wat this afternoon, so the next post will probably be on Angkor Wat.

As in other Indochine countries, Khmer people are very nice and polite. It is very safe for a woman (like me) to walk around the city by myself. Many modes of transportation are available, from bicycle to motorbike (ojek as we called in Jakarta), from tuk-tuk to helicopter (to see the city and Angkor Wat from the sky). But, of course those can't beat walking, if the weather is nice.
One interesting place which is the center of the attraction in Siem Reap is Psar Chaa (Old Market). Amazingly, the word 'market' in Khmer is pronounced the same as pasar in Indonesian. Lots of cafes, restaurants, guesthouses, massage centers and souvenir shops around this area. One advise, better come in the evening to see the "real life" of this area.

One fine typical day

This is what we do almost everyday…

5am: Wake up. Brew coffee. Browse CNN or if necessary, local TVs for hot gossips.

5:45am: Take off. Yes, it’s early. But that’s how we live with otherwise long traffic jam. Read Kompas and the Jakarta Post on the way. Sometimes Aco can’t help blogging, especially if the news freaks him out.

6:30am: Arrive at gym. Light exercise and take showers. (In non-typical day we take off at 6:30, of course after taking shower!).

8:00am: Aco drops me off at my office, then he proceeds to his.

12:00pm: Aco calls me (or the other way around) with standard pickup line: “What’s your eating?”

5:00pm: I call Aco (or the other way around) with: “What time are we leaving?”

7:30-ish-pm (or non-typically 8-9 pm!): Aco picks me up. We stop by for a quick meal.

8:00 pm: Driving home. Traffic jam, almost always.

9:00 or 9:30pm depending on the traffic flow: Arrive at home, exhausted. Take showers. Finish up with the newspapers (or start with weekly magazines if any).

10:00pm: Lazily playing with TV channels. If CSI is on, then it’d be my intro to sleep. Sometimes, this guy Aming beats CSI or Alias (he’s smart and funny), though he obviously would have hard time beating Desperate Housewives.

11:00pm: Aco wakes me up: “Go to bed. Don’t sleep here on the sofa”. By that time he has turned off the TV… He looks tired, too (in non-typical day he can go on with his damn laptop until 1am).

Did I say typical?
Because we have life, too, you know...

Guys don't keep pennies coins

Over coffee this morning (guys, in case you're not aware yet, Coffee Bean is offering a 50% off for BNI card holders -- go get that delicious Caesar's Salad!) Anna pointed to me that my wallet was growing. I didn't realize I had been putting small pieces of papernotes in it -- about teaching, about research issues, about things to blog, etc. Damn, what was I thinking? I looked at the wallet. She was right. It was ugly. She had been telling me to optimize economize with my O2, but I'm just an old-fashioned who can't completely get off papers. Out of embarrasment, I threw those notes away...

Then we talked about guys who keep coins in their wallets. If two or three pieces of small papers could make my wallet look so ugly, you can imagine that of a guy who keeps coins in it. Some guys even proudly ("look, I've got money") put their big fat wallets full of coins in their Levi's back pocket. That's a total turnoff, I overheard girls' talk once. "Like we don't know it's not part of his body?"

Now that my working environment doesn't allow me to wear Levi's everyday (blame those meetings with clients), I should've not concerned too much, because of course I can put my wallet in my pants' front pocket. But as Anna told me: "Eeew, you look like that Nazi's general from the World War!", especially when the other front pocket is already occupied by my handphone.

OK, I am not keeping coins in my wallet ever again...

(Now a little confession ... and why I stroke the word "pennies" in the title). Back a couple of years ago I was a typical grad student. By "typical" I mean, a guy who accumulated (like or not) pennies in his apartment. Everytime I came home, there was always one penny or two (along with dimes and quarters of course) in my pocket (not in the wallet, girls). I put them in my big glass bowl. Every semester the pennies grew quickly. So I went to my bank to get them transformed to paper bills, to ease carrying and transaction. So far so good. But...

One day I entered the bank hurrily with a sack of pennies. I told the cashier: "Can I change my pennies...". Alas, my accent screwed up. The cashier looked at me with weird expression (later I knew she was trying hard not to laugh). Apparently I pronounced the word "pennies" a little too hurrily, so I might have said another word with completely different meaning...!

Fast forward: I'm much more careful now. Even when teaching Game Theory, for example. Whenever I use the example of "Matching Pennies" game, I change that damn word into "coins"...

Would you share your husband?

www.berbagisuami.com (click picture to enlarge)

We watched three Indonesian movies. Two of them are good. One is an extreme crap.

Janji Joni (Joni's Promise) is good. So is Berbagi Suami (Sharing One Husband) . While both have drawbacks especially in their background sound/music, they are obviously high above the average Indonesian movies. It might bother those who value originality highly, but the unavoidable allusion to Run Lola Run in Janji Joni and Four Rooms in Berbagi Suami should be within tolerance. Of particular praiseworthy in both of these Nia Dinata's films is their honesty and simplicity. So "daily life". The pictures are good, too. The economics of Berbagi Suami is discussed in Café Salemba.

As for Detik Terakhir (The Last Moment), it was a torture. It's terribly boring (I was like: does this thing have an end?) and copycattish. Really hateable. Stay with Teater Koma, Cornelia. At least they teach you something there.