It is sucks travelling alone. My friends left last week, and after some chaos at the office, a side effect from Jogja’s Earthquake, here I am, at Changi Airport, waiting for my connecting flight to Shanghai.

Anyway, one interesting thing of travelling alone is, you will pay more attention to details. I’m using SIngapore Airlines now, and they certainly worth the extra price. Their seat are wider than Garuda. And the Internet Check-in allow me to pick the emergency exit seat for the 6 hour flight to Shanghai, the seat which has the biggest legroom.

Oh, and I just found out that SQ don’t fly to Chicago. Well, to my friend out there, tough luck for you :p

And today I tried Jakarta’s Airpot lounge. Certainly much better than Bali’s airport lounge.

Using SQ, I landed at Terminal 2 of Changi Airport. There are Times NewsLink bookstore, which I think a little bit expensive, compared to Kinokuniya. Then a shop selling electronic stuff, including ipod accessories, but no ipod camera connector.

Anyway, enough for now… time for uploading some pics……

PS: The death toll of Jogja’s Earthquake has reached 5.000. Thought and prayer to the dead.

I’m reading through my friends’ emails to plan my trip to Bali. No specific date yet, but planning a vacation is good relaxation from office task which seems would never ends.

To my pleasure, prices are going down in Bali. Car rental is cheap, around Rp. 250.000 for family wagon (Kijang, if you know what I mean). Hotel, you can get a decent room for Rp. 150.000 – 250.000. Airfares are also cheaper, thanks to Air Asia.

Then it came into my heart, the misery for Bali. Bali was not as crowded as fe years ago, before the stupid terrorist did the bombing. That is the reason why the price has went down, people are trying to survive over there.

I still wish that Bali will be popular and crowded again anytime soon. Despite of the price will going up, and some peference in the local treatment…. I love Bali in the crowd.

I never see my boss in this level of stress. Not surprising though, with 2 projects in big trouble, with no foreseeable end, and noone seems capable to handle it, even the most calm person could become stressed.

The impact? I guess it finally come down to me too. While I’m half dead keeping my project on schedule, my resources is being pulled out to help the troubled project. With some school homework, I must admint that I’m also stressed out the chaos at the office.

All the situation reminds me of the quote my friend once used in her email signature. A quote from Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, which holds some truth in it. Every leader can lead in good time, but to look for a true great leader, you will need a chaos to find it.

I just wish that the real leader will show up himself fast, so that we can get out of the whole trouble, look back, and be proud, because we manage to get through.

In the last 20 days, I’ve been busy in making a deal to purchase an apartment. It was in a good place, and the unit is not common in Jakarta, let alone in the area. The price is not cheap, but the payment term was structured so nicely, which make it difficult to resist. On paper, it promises a return of more than 10% in the first year, not including price appreciation.

Too bad that, this evening, the salesperson called me to say that the deal was cancelled, due to some circumstances. All money that has been paid will be refunded fully. Finally it was just only a lesson of negotiation and deal making, which is paid only by our time. Yeah we did learn something in the last 20 days, and put some theory into practice

Bargain everything. Even stuff that has a list price, like apartments, can be bargained. We spent 4 hours in one evening, and if the deal continues, we would save Rp. 20 million!

Don’t forget payment term and cash flow. Our mistake is we didn’t evaluate for proper cash flow, which cause us some headache.

Be creative for payment term. I just heard of a very uncommon payment term, which I never think before.

Ask something in return. When you raise your price, or agree on anything, ask something in return for your agreement. Each agreement should be given with reason.

Maybe we didn’t make the deal, but beside the deal itself, the process gave so much experience. We made new friend, and more informed about the property market in the area.