Exhausting parties

A month ago we held a party celebrating my mother's 70th birthday. Though the preparation gave me headaches, it went great. About a hundred invitations were given. It's a seated lunch. So, we need to call back everybody and confirm if they would come. About ninety percent came. Plus some others that were invited without us (by us, I mean the organizer, my sisters and their husbands, my husband) knowing. You know families. The party went smoothly, the room was full, food was great. Everybody stayed until almost the end of the party. And it lasted four and a half hours!! Ok, ok this isn't exactly about the party.
Now, the next week I met one of my relatives. Naturally, we talked about the party. He said it was great and bla, bla. THEN, he complained that everybody willingly and happily came to parties like this, but fewer and fewer people came to traditional batak wedding parties. Huh??!! Pleaaaseee, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out.
In traditional batak parties, there are usually more than seven hundred people. Naturally, the room has to be outrageously large. Then the host family is almost always so afraid that nobody can hear "the important guests" talking in the front, so they always put the sound system volume to the highest!! The music is so loud. You have to almost shout to be able to talk to people seated next to you. The important adat guests in the front talked endlessly about things that have been decided!!
Now usually batak's wedding start with church ceremony in the morning (because a large number of batak is christian). Right after church, everybody goes to the party. So, the party starts around 12.30. And don't get me start on the guests who eat before the prayer! After lunch, then the important guests start talking again. Then it's time for some guests (about half) to congratulate the bride's and the bridegroom's families while giving them some money. The other guests would have to sit and wait, because different things are expected of them. More snack would follow, then coffee/tea. Then bottled water or sometimes soft drink. You can imagine the amount of money the would have to be spent.
Since there are a lot of people, you can imagine the heat. Recently, more well-to-do families get air-conditioned hall. So, it's a bit better,
Still. It's hot, it's noisy, and it lasts for hours. Most parties end around 6!! Now, is it any wonder that less and less people come? Come on. As the result of this, busy people ("people who are working or have careers") usually come after lunch (if they need to stay till the end) or they come just for lunch, congratulate (aka give their gifts) and go home.
Now, because of this, some batak people start to REALLY HATE traditional batak wedding parties. And I don't blame them. How can you enjoy such parties? The sad thing is, some people blame the batak culture. I don't agree with them, but then it's a whole different discussion.

JW Marriott Bombing

Several weeks ago I read an article in Jakarta Post. Apparently, the writer got his material from Straits Times and other outside resources.
He said that there were signs that the hotel should've picked up. First, the person who called to book the room declined the first two rooms that offered. Second, he accepted right out the standard room rate. It's so rare in this times. Third, he put down $1000 cash deposit. Then, his identity card. The 2 copy machines in the hotel's front office didn't work at that time. So the receptionist told the man to come back to get his id card copied. He never came back.
Now, what did this tell you?
Human Resources!! Now, it's common or okay if only one of this signs happened. But all of these signs?? The front office should have smelled that there's something rotten. And to think that the hotel was already bombed once. Goodness. The hotel's management REALLY need to reeducate all their employees.

Complain, complain, complain

Last night, I was driving from one of the malls in South Jakarta. I was anticipating a busy traffic since it was the beginning of the month, when everybody's (or most people's) bank account is still "virgin". Well, I was surprised. There's no jam at all. And I said to myself," Mmmmm, this is strange. This is odd. Did something happen? Anything that I don't know of?"
I got home. No news. No bad news that would keep people at home.
Then, I started thinking. Why did I have to think that's something strange? It seems that I'm always in a hurry to comment, or to complain. Well, I think a lot of people are. When the traffic is jammed, we complain. When, the traffic isn't jammed, we frown. When the roads are full of holes, we complain, because then the traffic would be so slow and it's bad for our cars. And when the roads are so nice, we also complain, because everybody would speed (taking advantage of the rare condition!!).
When we don't have money, or not enough money, we complain. But when we have a lot of things to do because we have money, we also complain. When we can only afford a small house, we complain. But when we have a big one, we also complain (!!) because it's hard to keep them clean at all times.
A lot of times, we forget to be grateful, and just enjoy... I, for one, need to do that. To feel grateful, to count our blessing more often.