fragments of lifeMarch 5, 2007 7:16 pm

Telur Australia

Do you know that according to WHO, the avian influenza in Indonesia is now at stage 3?  This is out of 6 levels, in which level 5 and 6 are already epidemic levels in which we have to go into quarantine already.  Anyway, I will not discuss something serious like that, oh no…

Though this is somehow still related to the issue of avian influenza, this is of a more relaxed nature.

In the news since late last year, there has been coverage on bird flu all over Aceh region, and although we have been a bit worried, we actually did not really take it seriously until it literally knocked on our neighbor’s door.  About three days ago, local newspapers covered a story about 36 chicken that died suddenly and were identified positively by Dinas Peternakan of catching the avian influenza virus, and guess what…the spot was actually 150 meters away from our house. O…ow…and only when we read carefully the piece of news, mentioning 6 other areas in Banda Aceh where avian influenza had been found among chicken, oh, how we know the names of the places by heart…

So we tried to take a precaution measure.

As any other more fortunate households around here, we have somebody to help us clean up the house and oh, what a wonderful cook she is (to be honest, she’s better in cooking than cleaning…well, she likes cooking more than cleaning anyway…).  And one day, my dear bule housemate decided to inform her not to buy eggs on her own…

Conversation (original in very basic Indonesian..)

“Kak, sekarang anda tidak membeli telur lagi ya.  Saya akan membeli telur untuk rumah, dan bersihkan dan put , (‘Schatz, what’s to put in Bahasa Indonesia?’ ‘Taruh’, came the reply), ah ya…taruh di kulkas.  Tolong tidak membeli telur.  Anda hanya memasak telur di kulkas.”
“Kenapa Mister?”
“Mm, sekarang ada flu burung di Aceh, dan kemarin ada news di koran bilang ada ayam mati di dekat rumah kita.  Lebih bagus hati-hati.  Kami membeli telur dari toko special lalu bersihkan dengan sabun special juga, untuk hati-hati.”
(this is actually a simplified explanation since he was not sure that he is able to explain thoroughly and discuss with her in Indonesian)
“Ah, Mister beli telur Australia ya…baik, baik…”

“Haa??? “

We had no clue what she meant by that, but since there was no chance to continue the discussion, he was simply grateful that she understood he would buy the eggs for the whole house, simply nodded and walked away.

We thought that was because there is a shop around here that many affectionately called the “bule shop”, originally named Blangrakal meat shop.  This shop has evolved over the months from an imported meat shop into import shop which sells mostly things to satisfy the taste of the bules, expats for those who don’t know what bule is, or Indonesians coming from Jakarta or other bigger cities who once in while crave for good ice cream, jams, fancy daily products we can’t find in normal supermarkets.  This shop IS famous for New Zealand steak meat, and though NZ and OZ are two different places, we could understand the confusion (well, I am not that good with geography anyway, so that’ no wonder for me…)

Only later during the weekend we understood that “telur Australia” is a new-found egg “branding” created by our great eggs marketer to ease the mind of the paranoia surrounding the bird flu matter (oh no, we are not paranoid, we are simply taking precaution…he…he…).
We heard from a couple of friends visiting us later that week that their egg “supplier” also claimed to have imported their eggs from Australia, so “bebas flu burung”, oh sorry…I mean “bird flu free”.

Oh yeah…like you are going to eat rotten eggs brought over the ocean from Australia to escape bird flu?
Geez…what a funny world…

Comments (1)
fragments of life, mouse in the house 6:22 pm

adversity brings creativity

A conversation between a mildly athletic guy with a sluggish plump girl….one night via telephone:
” Hey, could you buy me a wrist band? You know, the one you wear for sport around your wrist…”
“Yes, of course. Thinking of taking up tennis? Or badminton? That’s a good idea!”
“Hey, don’t get too excited.  I need it to go to the office.”

“????”

Well, to begin with, it’s a bit exaggerating to call this adversity, since the word is meant to convey a bigger, deeper meaning than my experience.  But it sounds like a catchy wise word sentence, so why not borrowing it for this experience.

Starting a new job in a completely new environment is somehow exciting, challenging, though at the same time, exhausting.  Almost each day I arrive “home” feeling exhausted, with slight backpain and stiff fingers out of sitting and typing in front of a computer all day long, greatly different from my mobile job before.  I am fortunate, though, since there is somebody I can show my “battle wounds” to at each end of the day emoticon

But alas, one day I found that the joints just above my wrists have changed color.  What used to be kind of fair *ehem…* skin has turned into brownish color on both wrists, the right slightly worse than the other.  The spots are kind of hard to the touch, and that rang an alarming bell in the head…  Not that I mind having a little bit of thick skin here and there, but the “here and there" is kind of expanding, so I’m bound to take some measures.

So I began raking my brain on the easy, available ideas to deal with this.  I assume that I need to minimize contact between my wrist and the not so soft table surface where I work every day.  I began taking a small towel that I put under the keyboard on the spots where my wrists rest.

You know, I have really cute little towels.  But no matter how cute the towels are, with flowers and all, that was still not a very cute sight there on my office desk.  And one day, voila…another idea… (really, the needy is the most creative of all..)  Hanging out with a-used-to-be-very-athletic guy, gives me lots of visual clues on sports equipment, and at that moment the visual cue of a wrist band simply popped into my brain, hm…that seems like a practical idea!!  So the telephone conversation took place, and the following week, my wrists are [un]fashionably adorned by a pair of [mis]matched wrist bands. Hm…still not a very cute sight, but at least no towel hovering on my desk as if I would start dripping any moment…

I guess my colleagues thought I got injured, or I have a some kind of weird fashion statement emoticon Anyway, nobody did much more than stealing a curious glance, no question asked…  great eh?  And that was really great timing since during that week, and the following, and the following week…my work load is really record breaking…  But thanks to my not very cute wrist bands, I have happier wrists now (though there is now no chance for the bands to return to their true calling since they have been stretched out of shape to accommodate the base of my palms and my working fingers…well, that’s life… c’est la vie…)

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