A Lifestyle Consultant

A new concept of service is now being provided by a company called Mandhala based in Madrid. This company gives advices to clients who would like to enhance their personal image, enjoy lives and get to know more about lifestyle in the city.

The company provides information about what to do, where to go and how to enjoy live in Spain and Madrid in particular. It also advices on what clothes to wear and where to shop them, what exhibition and social/club party to attend. Furhtermore , entry tickets to any exhibition or cinemas can also be provided by the company. Basically it can provide anything related to lifestyle to clients who have no time to organize it themselves.

The concept of personal service provided by a lifestyle consultant is a bit different from that provided by a life mentor. A life mentor usually deals with behaviour and problems of his/her client and suggests them on how to deal with the clients' personal problems. A lifestyle consultant, on the other hand, deals with the enjoyable side of life of their clients. A lifestyle consultant does not sell service on how to deal with emotional problem or bad-mood and daily life problem with office colleagues, for example.

Being a lifestyle consultant means it is neccesary to know much about nearly everythings, including at least: tourist places, food, dressing style, the entertainment world, shopping centres, cultural festivals and transportation network. Knowing transporation network is important because it is related to information on how to get to the attraction places efficiently.

It will be interesting to find out if this kind of service is really needed and whether or not it can be a trend for the future model of personal service business. One thing is clear though, being familiar with a new environment is needed by people who are being assigned to a new place, therefore this service is useful for foreigners, like me (it's a pity I don't have enough money to hire a lifestyle consultant).

Christmas Gift

What kind of gift would you want for Christmas?

A new car? Easy, as long as you have much money or your parents have lots of money or your partner has lots of money.

A new house? This is easy, too, again as long as you have money to buy it.

A new girlfriend/boyfriend? Well, although it is not that easy but still there is a chance you can get it.

Now what about peace in the Middle East?

What about no more "terrorism", any kind of terrorism, in the world?

What should we do to achieve it? It cannot be bought by using our money, neither can it be forced by power. We have no influence to engineer anything. We cannot prevent those with power to keep sending troops, either. Will Santa give us this kind of gift?

Parking a car at the corner between 2 streets

One thing I find strange here in Madrid is, we are allowed to park a car at the corner between two streets. Usually this is done when we need to stop by, just for a couple minutes and do not intend to park for hours. All we need to do is just turn on the emergency light. That's it.

I have no idea whether this is actually illegal or not, but many people do it and I have never seen police fine drivers who park their cars at the corner of the streets. It is possible that this kind of parking can only be done on small streets, not on main roads in the centre of the city where traffic is heavy.

Nevertheless, this is the first time I see people park their cars at the corners of 2 streets. It certainly does not happen in Indonesia, neither does it in Australia, well, at least based on my experience there.

Bad Wine

It costs just over €2 a bottle, in fact, a litter. It was €2.35 precisely. The reason I bought it was because I wanted the bottle, which I am going to use as a water bottle in my office. Having a water bottle means I don't need to walk to our pantry every time I need to drink just a little cup of water. It is not that I don't want to walk at all but I can walk to the pantry 20 times a day just for drinking 100 ml of water because the only available cup is in this size.

This wine tastes awful, even for someone who knows nothing about wine, which is me. I can tell if it tastes really awful because it's sour. It leaves bad taste in my mouth after drinking it.

I guess we can tell from its price really. We can expect nothing from a bottle of wine that costs only €2.35/l. The only good thing I can think of this wine is its bottle. A water bottle that costs me €2.35, not bad really.

Fighting for Survival - Self-Taught Spanish 1

So, how do you order a Subway when you don't speak Spanish at all?

Well, first of all, remember the steps here:
1. Choose from Subway menu (don't forget to remember numbers in Spanish)
2. Decide type of bread you want and its size
3. Order for extra cheese or no
4. Add vegetables
5. Add Sauce
6. Eat in or take away
7. Ask how much the price is

In Spanish, you will have to say:
1. Subway: Pollo Teriyaki (for example), or say Numero Uno, Dos, Tres,... (1,2,3,...)
2. Tipo de pan...(choose from the pictures, there are 4 types: blanco, integral, avena dulce and another one...I can't remember). The size option is either mediano (mid size) or grande (full size)
3. No extra queso (no extra cheese)
4. Con lechuga, tomate y cebolla (with lettuce, tomato and onion), con acetuna y pepino (with olive and cucumber)
5. Salsa mayonnaise (for example if you want mayonnaise or just point any one you want)
6. Para comer aqui (Eat in) or para llevar (take away)
7. Cuanto es? (How much?)

If the person who serves you asks too many questions, just say: sorry mate, I don't understand what you're talking about. Just fucking give me what I said and be quick! I am fucking hungry now, asshole!

Okay, good luck!

CV-DVD Labels & Laser Printer

They just don't work!

Sometime they do work, but there is only 30% chance they can fit nicely to each other. In other word, out of 10 pages of sticker you print out, there are only 3 pages that you can use. This doesn't mean they are perfect. They are just "use-able".

It is clearly stated on its container that the label is suitable for most desktop inkjet and bubblejet printers. It doesn't mention anything about laser printer. Somehow I was confident that it can be printed on a printer and eager to give it a go, especially after the shopkeeper at OfficeWorks told me "there is no reason why it's not gonna work on a laser printer". I thought "Okay, that's great because I don't have a inkjet and the only printer available in my lab is a black and white laser printer."

Well, the main reason why it is not suitable to be printed on a laser printer is because sometime (not sometime but most of the time) it takes the printer too long to pull the thick label in and therefore when the printer has started printing out the words, the label is still not in. This means the position of the words printed on the label is totally wrong although when I tested the layout on a normal A4 paper it looks good.

Another lesson to learn, by making mistake. I would have been better if I learned it from someone else' mistake though, not mine...

What About Me

"What About Me" is a song that told a story about how "small people" are neglected by the society. The "small people", who live in the ground level of the social system can be those who are still young, have nothing or low-paid jobs. The song was sung by Moving Pictures, a rock band from Sydney in 1980s.

Check this YouTube Video out to listen to the lyrics and have a thought about our surrounding where we can see those "neglected people":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GClKDN9o88U