Fish, Stick, and Fish Stick

Almost midnight in Wollongong.

Finally I am back on my laptop again. And on new desk right now. In a new room as well. It has been two days, and many things have happened. One is that we finally moved to a new shared house. When I say we, I mean Mas Hendro and me. Two days ago, the landlord of Mbak Ayu's place informed that one room was available earlier than when we are supposedly to move in. Having quite busy week with so many homework, we decided to move in the weekend, which is today, Saturday, by the end of May.

Should we then express our most gratefulness to God, for showing us the easy way along with many assistance. Abundant thank to Pak Syamsul Hadi who had kindly taken real good care of the three of us. From the very day we arrived, helped us in finding better accommodation, and even placed two of us in his and Mas Dianta's shared place for two weeks while waiting for the time to move to the destined one, and finally delivered us to our new home sweet home, here, at 15 Braeside Avenue, accompanied by Mas Saiful, the husband of Mbak Indri. Thank you again Pak Syamsul, Mas Dianta, Mas Saiful, Mbak Indri, and all the Indonesian in 22 Graham Avenue. May God rewarded their kindness with abundant ones following.

One day there, another day here. Life is a journey that nobody knows where would God lead the story to.

As for tonight, then here I am. Half hour to middle of the night. Eating fish sticks I fried on microwave in Pak Syamsul's shared house before we moved. Just finished unpacking luggage and arranged clothes and all relating stuffs. Mas Hendro has fallen asleep, he seemed very exhausted. We for while still share the same room, until another room will be available by hopefully soon next week.

Speaking of the many blessing lies in disguise, I have told you about the laptop that I use, formerly lent by Pak Samsul. Since I did not bring one, managed to buy, but then he prevented, saying I could use his old one. Then yesterday he said I could use it for good. Whaaaa! How generous, isn't he? Thank you again Pak! I would not forget, and you will not regret! For I will surely take real good care of it and use it for greater goods and better benefits!

I was speechless. Sometimes I think God is too kind. Not everyday we face so many lucky days within a row. It makes me feel like I'm so blessed, but at the same time feel ashamed, for I think I haven't done much good things to be granted the many bless like this. Yet, I believe, the more grateful we are, God will shower us with more and more kindness in return. The thing is, don't forget where all the good comes from. Be thankful, and make it a strong motivation to do more good deeds with sincere and spread kindness to everyone, especially those in need! :)

Tomorrow is a brand new day. Now that midnight is only ten minutes away, I just need few more words to say. We might feel lucky, as if we are fed with fishes everyday. But remember, it is still better to have the stick and go fishing on our own, rather than waiting to be fed and given fishes at all time. It still takes more hard work to do, for there will be many hardness and more of works await ahead. 

Be well prepared! And, always, be thankful to God! If you can do this, His blessings would bring you bliss and makes your life become blessed and more meaningful! God always has His unique way. You may as well then be assured, He will always be there to lead you find your way!

No matter what, hold on to stay! :)

Nice late dinner, and have a good rest, everybody! :D

Slow Pace of Time

There are the advantages and disadvantages in simply anything.

If you are born a turtle, you are blessed with a hard shell of bag you can hide in. However, it may become too heavy that it, if not other natural born, shall slow you down, which would take you much longer time to reach certain destination.

I feel like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles now. :)

This abundant energy flows within, may as well come from eternal flaming spirit of eagerness to learn and experience adventures, gives me the ever being teenager feeling! Forever young! While the rapid changes I have to face and hence adapted to kind of forcing me to quickly responding right, making me feel like I am a mutant with beyond human strength and capacities of doing. I also love the idea of being stealthy actually, but I just could not help not to write and share, so when I do, I had to put on mask to ensure nobody knows who writes behind the mask. This way helps me to pour in all the ideas I have in my mind freely and without hesitating, for in reality I am a shy guy, ha-ha! But that gives me another sense of being a Ninja!

So, what about the Turtles now? :D

Living in the southern hemisphere, beyond 23 degrees of longitude from the equatorial meridian, bring about consequences. During the nearly winter times like now, from July to September, the days are shorter than the nights. Here, dawn breaks at fifteen past six in the morning, whereas the dusk comes faster at five o'clock in the evening. The reversal works later in the summer time. From January to March, there should be longer span of time for the sun to heat and warm the Earth. This, also, to be noticed that Summer and Winter period is opposite in vice versa to countries way of the up North. Winter in the United States, Canada, and Europe may come in snowy Christmas time, while the Christmas bells here ring earlier on June! And you need to go to Snowy Mountain to experience snow!

So again, what about the Turtles? :D

Having a shorter day, and longer night, initially provided me with more time to sleep. But it was not until the next day that I began to have difficulties in sleeping early. Probably my biological body clock has automatically been adjusted, so that I stay awake until more than nine when I previously had fallen, and stand still up until the midnight and over!

At these times of crawling nights, I began to feel like a turtle! Yet, I felt as comfortable. Because I found the leisure of having new activity of writing this blog in some sort of privacy, using lent laptop, I will tell you more about this later, that gives me the atmosphere of being inside the turtle shell! :D

And yes, it is the craving times that really had made a difference. In Jakarta, time always flies within a rush. Everybody seems to run and jump and nobody sits down still. You have to wake up earlier than the sun does, go catch the fully loaded, well, most of the time overloaded, public transportation, got caught inside and in traffic congestion for hours of two, then reach the office in panic for the time is running out too. When you begin to work, in short, midday strike through. While you think you haven't got enough time to do your main duty, it is afternoon already. And again, you would have to fight for your way home. Another fatigue in the crowd for two to three hours at night. You arrive exhausted, trying to get some rest in the minimum of span you hope you can take a good nap in. Unfortunately, mostly, you never have.

So, I am much enjoying the slow pace of time being here in Wollongong. It is okay being like a turtle sometimes. For it does bringing me another advantages I may never have thought of, hence giving me new ways and opportunities to benefit, one of, is to have more time to write blog while doing my homework!

Like two sides of a coin, it is not a matter of what side is facing top, it is how you cherish whichever side you have, and make the most out of it for precious and useful benefits!

No wonder the Koalas sleep more than fourteen hours a day! :D

Whichever, make your out most, best! :)

The Right Choice: More Options To Save

So, having been discussed the living cost in Wollongong, and generally speaking in Australia, should not there be any better suggestion than having more options and perfect reasons to save, savings that will save you in times of need? :)

Two days ago, I went to Sydney for having a fun one daily trip. I went there with three of my fellow students from Indonesia. Before I tell you about all the excitements about Sydney, I guess it is about the time to introduce to you all: The Companion.

When I was assigned to study in Wollongong, I departed from Indonesia on Friday evening of May 16th 2014, with two other civil servants from my institution. Have I told you that I worked for the Directorate General of Taxes, Ministry of Finance, Republic of Indonesia? :)

I was awarded scholarship by the Australia Awards Scholarship to take Master's Degree Program of Business Administration Advanced, while my two other friends decided to take the Master of Forensic Accounting. They are Hendro Dwi Cahyono, or Mas Hendro as I call him, and Retnaning Ayu Hapsari, or Mbak Ayu as I address. They would study here at The Uni for one year, while I take the advance of living for another year longer. I am married. And my wife is coming down here within a month. Can hardly wait. But in the time being, I still need to learn more how to survive and save myself, a whole lot of saving! :D

Another luck I need to, and I have to tell. God is so kind, that even though at first we were accommodated by The Uni to stay in Keiraview Campus Accommodation, one of the many provided by Wollongong University for international students coming from overseas, which was quite costly, we were helped by one kind senior from Indonesia taking doctoral degree also at The Uni, Mister, or Pak, Syamsul Hadi. Having read one of our email, Mbak Ayu's actually, of requesting temporary or permanent accommodation information through the PPIA (Perhimpunan Pelajar Indonesia Australia), the Student Association for Indonesian scholars in Australia, Pak Syamsul eagerly picked us up the very next day and offered few choices of a good kind. Well that saves us another AU$34 for one night sleep in a room shared with four others on double racked extra beds! :D

But it was never about the money! It is a moral of again, a blissful bless! :)

Shortly said, Mbak Ayu was accommodated in a shared house near campus, in Braeside Avenue that is, just across the Botanical Garden, a lovely place to stay, while me and Mas Hendro temporarily stay with Pak Syamsul, who shared a flat with another Indonesian brilliant youth taking PhD, Dianta Ginting, or Mas Dianta as we call him, that is in Graham Avenue, until we move when the time comes.

Again, it really was another blissful bless! :) Abundant thanks to Pak Syamsul, Mas Dianta, and many other Indonesian who live in the surrounding: Pak Banu, Mbak Titik, Pak Agus, Mbak Alvi, and their kids too, Mas Saiful and his wife soon to be our classmate in IAS, Mbak Indri. Shortly speaking, me and Mas Hendro would have stayed for about two weeks, before we move to available room for two in Mbak Ayu's current, where I would then will live on and spend my long days here with my wife, and hopefully, alongside Mbak Ayu and Mas Hendro as well.

One of the advantage of having a good relationship is not that you would expect a return of the kindness in favor, but having mutual friends does helping a lot. In our religion belief, that is Islam, we use the term known as the Silaturahmi, meaning maintaining a good relationship with other people. Not only God would love and shower us with bless by doing so, He would also bless us with abundant of wealth as well a longer span of life as a promise. That is cited in the Hadits, that is spoken words or deeds done by the Prophet Muhammad SAW (Peace Be Upon Him).

So, if I can go back a little ward again to reasons to save more, not only would I save more cash to survive, but more important, it makes me realize the importance of saving more and more! Back to Sydney where we left it, by having a one day picnic all along with Mas Dianta, Mas Hendro and Mbak Ayu to the metropolitan city with high standards of living in style, hence, requires as high in respective for the cost, it just struck me in the head, that we are so lucky to have made the right choice by deciding to go down here instead, to study and enjoy living in Wollongong.

Just a little comparison. If it may cost approximately AU$10 for a pad of one time meal in Wollongong, then think twice for you will have to pay twice the price in Sydney, that would be AU$20, for regular plate of Pizza, Lasagna or Spaghetti, and another AU$5 to the least, for cuppa Chai Latte or having served Camomile Tea. That means, you may multiply it for having three times meal per day, times seven for a week, and again by four to cost you total of around AU$1.680, a month, just for food! Not yet the cuppa! :D

I guess that is another excellent reason to choose to stay in Wollongong. You can still go to Sydney every weekend for holiday, for it only takes one and a half hour by train departed from the North Wollongong Station. You have the many reasons to save more down here! And speaking of making the right choice, it simply gives you more options and opportunities, again, to save more! :D

What else could be better than that? :)

Survival Meals For Dinner

So, what have you got for dinner? :)

Speaking of having meals for dinner reminds me to the importance of soon learning how to cook. As a student newly arrived in Australia, I must learn to adapt things fast. Not only to the weather or the culture, but as well the food. Lucky, I am not having much a shock of difference, for my stomach is quite accepting to the Western-type of meals, in comparison to the usual food consumed by Asian or the Eastern-type of cooking.

For the first few weeks may be it is still assumed acceptable, but when it comes to a month living here and more, I guess I would really have to consider, for efficiency reason of not having too much money spent to buy for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or sometimes snacks and of course a cuppa coffee, that is, to learn how to cook, for me to survive! :D

So I will now put cooking in my list of a must-learn lessons. Anyway, since this is already my eighth post, you know how learning can be fun, when you realize, you have been sharing quite much. Fascinating. Speaking of seven days again as a cycle within a week, I guess it is about time now, past seven posts, after having consumed some meals of exciting information, it is time to share the obtained so others may as well be pad up for dinner and can sleep well with stomach full.

As I promised, I will tell you about the basic can be considered as important and necessary information of living down under in the Oz, especially here in Wollongong. Mostly, they are based upon my first seven days observation, and still be relating to how lucky I feel of having many blissful blesses in my life. Again, we are speaking of having blissful bless. So, you can as well start counting the many that you have today.

For God is So Merciful, and we are all considered very lucky people! :)

So where should I begin the journey from? Ah, the bus stop! That's a good start! Off we go, then? :D

First of all, I guess I am lucky, that Wollongong City Council provided free bus through the use of the Gong Shuttle, funded by the Wollongong University, it is a service that made easy and comforting to commute all around the city. There are two main routes based on direction. The free bus of 55A and 55C, for example, simply it means bus number 55 that runs Anticlockwise and certainly the other moves Clockwise. The buses pass through main streets, shopping places, schools, university, train station, the beach of course, and many other sites often to be visited by many, that obviously eased the passengers.

Secondly, imagine how much money I can save just for the cost of transportation only? Regular price of bus ticket here may cost no less than AU$3.70. If I need to take the bus back and forth campus everyday, in just one day, I would have spent AU$7.40. Meaning, within a week I would have to pay for AU$51.8! Multiply it by four, within a month I will lose AU$207.20! Now I can save those to pay for my housing rent! Many thanks to The Gong Shuttle! :D

That is just one lucky factor. Of course I can increase my rate factor of luck, if I also give more efforts into the making. Remember previous discussion about having greater chance of luck by working harder, better, smarter? Basically, I am speaking of learning how to cook again! As well as changing my ways of having food, instead of buying the served, why not buying the raw materials, which costs cheaper, and have it cooked by myself? :D

Just a simple calculation. If I can save AU$3.30 for the morning Latte I usually buy at the Rush, name of coffee stall in front of MacKinnon Building in the University of Wollongong, I can also save at least AU$10 for each time I buy breakfast or lunch, and could be more spent for dinner! Imagine if I have to spend around AU$30 a day to have my meals. That would be AU$210 a week, and AU$840 a month, for food only!

I would be starving to the rest of my following months here! :D

I definitely have to change!

I have to learn fast how to cook! :D

Learn and Eat: Bits by Bits

Remembering the Eighties...

Decades ago, the size of a file in computer is limited to only certain megabytes. Raise an arm if you are among those who experienced living in the era of diskette or also known as floppy disk? The thin five quarter inch size, or the latest at that time, the thick three and a half one? Before the Nineties, there was no Windows made by Bill Gates ruling. The only open door is DOS as Disk Operating System. And the largest size of a file or memory is Megabyte.

The elders of that time perhaps would never thought that in the Millennium Era of twenty first century, the size has grown to enormously almost unlimited, Terabyte and beyond! Meanwhile, the size of the computer is the other way around, become way smaller and thinner, that one having a mainframe operated for business or academic purposes in the past popular universities would be opening jaws in awe, knowing they can now put the palm size of gadget in the pocket!

That is speaking of the rapid pace of improvements in the field of information and communication technology. Yes, scientific knowledge does evolve so fast. If we are not increasing speed, we might be as far left behind. That is why, it is important to keep improving and following the updates of the recent. But as there are too many to be absorbed just by a simple click to download, we need to be selective to so that we would obtain only the necessary for the sake of having an efficacy, and may need to compose the rest to our memory trash bin for the moment, obviously it won't be deleted permanently so you can always restore it anytime you need then.

Speaking of having overwhelmed information, an efficient studying is like having a plateful of elephant's meat. How would you eat an elephant served on a plate? Would you eat wholly all at once? No, you would not. You would not be able to even imagine of doing so. Still, you need to slice the meat, slice by slice. And eat it, a spoon by a spoon.

So now, talking of bits by bits. It may take longer to consume the whole of elephant, but eventually you will be able to eat the rest as a whole. It's just that you will need to do it chew by chew, one at a time. To study need not to be rush. Better yet, do it continuously in a routine cycle over a certain period. Given the time to swallow, so is the necessary for our brain to excerpt the essentials of the gained information.

I may have the routine of studying formally in the class. But still I have my choice to obtain even more beyond the class in daily lives, through every incidents I face, by any means the lessons delivered and taught, all I need is just to keep an open mind and listening wide, for information and knowledge may come from everywhere, from anyone, and at any possible given time.

As an elephant may has taught us a lesson, we are given two wide ears with only one mouth, meaning we are supposed to listen more than talk, because that way we can absorb more information and obtain brand new knowledge from anywhere at anytime.

Just remember. Don't get your stomach full at once. As simple as the file size of computer was, simply take lessons bits by bits. Get information, byte by byte. So is when you are eating. A bite by a bite.

You would certainly learn a lot! And well pad up! Have a nice lesson and dinner! :)

Study: Class and Beyond

When I say study, what is the first thing that comes up in your mind?

A horrible routine? Never ending cycle? Suddenly feel lazy, distressed and outweighed? Some people take studying as a burden too heavy they put in their shoulders, it could almost get their neck a pain and have their back a fatal injury. But actually, studying does not necessarily to be put as that way. It can be fun! If only you know how to make one. After all, studying does not always have to be sitting all day long on the bench in the class. It is only a small portion of regular activities you are doing. Actually, the bigger part is waiting outside, in the real life, beyond class!

Yes. Life itself is about a never ending learning process. To live is having a life long education. To experience new things, to have new adventures ahead, to enroll in something different, all these add up to your personal enrichment of studying, not only gaining you knowledge or improved skills, but also broader perspective and wider range of understanding on the surrounding and comprehend the way God teaches us throughout our lives.

It is evening already in Wollongong. It has been the start of the second week I commence Introduction to Academic Studies enrolled by UoW College. I know I wrote last time that I would write about my first seven days arriving. I would still do. But now, I want to share about the first seven days studying, before we are getting back to where we are supposed to started. Like the seven days in a week, it is all about a cycle. So is when we are talking about a routine. A series of repeated activities that go through a certain cycle on and on and still going on.

Time flies fast, that is what they said. But here in Wollongong, I feel like it goes slower than it was in Jakarta. The capital city of Indonesia where I came from. In Jakarta, everyday seemed to roll in a rush. I woke up early before five, get prepared fast, than had to hurry catch a bus before the clock stroke half past five, or I would be soon get caught in a traffic jam. Congestion is a serious problem in major city in Indonesia. Especially in Jakarta, you would feel like getting older by the hours stuck on the streets flooded with cars and motorcycles, thousands of them, even more. It took me the less two hours to reach office, and another two or three for returning home. Can you imagine what a hectic life the people has gone through?

Here, in Wollongong, it is extremely leisure on the contrary. You won't find any jam, unless there is an accident or road work take place on the way. The number of vehicles wandering the city is also not as many. Moreover, the awareness and discipline of the drivers here are considerably higher, correspond in linear to the level of safety and therefore minimize the risk of accident as well reducing the distress factor.

This, of course, is based on my hypothetical observation in first initial week here. Like I said, there is more to study beyond class. This is one of the thing I learned. Speaking of another lessons I found around, I can tell that the Aussies, referring to the Australian people, are commonly open minded and straightforward. They would not hesitate to say wrong to the wrongs, and ask someone to make it right. But they are also mostly warm and welcoming. I don't know would they be the same in major city like Sydney, where everyone seems to have and mind only their own businesses. But here in Wollongong, as I have said before, everyone, like the things occur, seems to be taking in advance much leisure and relaxing in ways to respond or react to. I guess it is in the nature, when you are living by the sea, where you can go out for fresh air and have some refreshment directly to the beach after having a fatigue over a daily routine.

It is good to have an escape. We all need to get out sometimes. And still there are whole lots of bits we can chew or swallow out of the dispersal waves of scattered lessons in the ocean of life. Be courageous for the challenges! Be brave for the adventures! The real lessons are in open. They are lying in the bushes, or in the hills and the valleys, could also be in the mountains and the beaches. It is out there in the outback!

Get out of class, and go beyond! Create your own adventures and experience the excitement!

Then when you come back, you can tell us about precious lessons you have found and learnt! :)

The Game of Luck

Life does worth more precious than just a game of luck.

It is true that we may feel like we are being lucky sometimes. But there is more than just a permutation or combination in factors that bringing us luck. To be lucky is not a matter of how many times you win over the rolling of a dice. The philosopher may think that luck is just a game and it is played by our own destiny. The mathematician might say that luck is countable and is predictable. Whereas the lazy ones may not wanting to even just to think, needless and should be effortless to realize that luck is there as there it is.

I believe that luck does exist. But effort does greater in opening opportunities wide. Yet, I also believe, that if we are doing the right things right, then God would give us a bonus as a reward. Yes, we may call it Luck. Which ever, I realize, there is such system of give and take. Not take and give, for mostly when people take, they forget to give back in return. It is how you learn to give, then you might expect of what to take. But for those having this level of thought, it is a trade system. While, God's lesson is far beyond. It relates to the sincerity of a pure in nature heart. The more sincere we are doing a good deed, the less we think of what to receive. Simply just give, and expect nothing in return. Then the sincerity may be counted in the accounting system of God, where He as The Most Abundant One has the very prerogative right to give to any good person that He like for doing goodness as He taught. Then the person who receives goodness in return out of nowhere may perceive as being lucky. This kind of reward by God may come even in the most unpredictable times, in times of hard where he may think of no more hope or assistance, in times of trouble and times when he feels alone, that would become the perfect time for God to show His Merciful and teach us the precious lesson.

The lesson is to be sincere in doing good, and to be surprised by another blissful bless, that we may call it as a luck. So luck is not a game. It is a system of reward and a lesson God taught us to give and give even more. There is no one deed uncounted. Everything is noted, either good or bad, to our account they are added, to be counted later in the Here After, as our balance of kindness or evilness. Those who are lucky, then, are those who did more kindness while alive, while those who are losing and bankrupt are those who did more wrongdoings in their lives. And yes, what a pity that is. I guess we are then as well lucky for knowing this system earlier in life, so it can help us fix and set our direction toward the goodness in our lives.

Then that is what I address as being Lucky! :)