When half of Southeast Asia had ticket wars for Coldplay and Taylor Swift, I had a different type of “ticket war”: Passport renewal registration.
My passport is due to renew on September-October, but since I have to go for a couple of work trips during those months, I reached out to the Embassy to check if it’s possible for me to renew my passport before it hits 6-months mark. I had the initial conversation through WhatsApp, and the staff asked me for my passport’s expiration date. “Slightly earlier, but it should be okay for you to renew your passport on July-August.”
Excited, I went through online registration process on http://paspor.kbrikl.id/. When I had to choose for the appointment date, I was so surprised that the earliest available slot was in August. Mind you, it was May when I registered.
The online registration is pretty straightforward. For passport renewal, you won’t have to prepare gazillion of documents. As for the payment, you will need to use an e-wallet app MyMCash (iOS and Android) as the Embassy staff no longer accepting cash.
A couple of weeks ago, though, I got an automatic SMS from the Embassy; informing me that my appointment date has been moved to July 7. I’m really happy about this, because this means I have more time to work on my visa application process.
Anyway, I’m currently waiting for my number to be called — and there are 100-ish people between the current number and my number. No joke. Indonesia Embassy in Malaysia is one, if not the, of the biggest and busiest Indonesia Embassies in the world.
This post was originally published and shared by me within my team’s channel (internal.) One thing about Automattic is, the company encourages you to write. Due to its nature as a distributed company where we have been doing remote working Before It Was Cool™?, asynchronous communication through writings is part of the company’s go-to method. Yes, we also have sync communication through Zoom, Around, and what-have-yous. Writing, however, is still something that is close and dear to folks in the company.
I wrote this because I have been facing this thought for quite some time. Perhaps since February, I guess? Although I suspect this has been going on far too long even before the beginning of 2023. I hope that for whoever read this and might feel the same way as I do, take comfort that you are not alone.
Anyway. I blabbed. The post below is copy-pasted from what I wrote on my team’s P2 (P2 is our… Blog-looking internal system to communicate and manage projects) with some word editing.
I love analogies and visualizing things in my head to help me understand things better — and for me to put names on Weird/Big Feelings I have. Lately, I have felt like standing on top of a jelly.
The jelly is my mental state. Like many emotions, it’s jiggly and easy to move. Some folks’ jelly might be firmer, and others might be more movement prone.
Mine? A really jiggly jelly and a combination of a hamster with caffeine.
Things change. The world is not the same after 2020. I even feel we have this collective wish to go back in time and erase that goddamn year and the pandemic, if possible.
What happened for the past 2-3 years feels like it quadrupled and increased every moment (I might exaggerate here.)
While the changes are normal and expected, it’s understandable when things feel… … … Not right. As if we are standing on top of a really jiggly jelly. Some changes, especially the ones that have been discussed and anticipated, are still okay-ish.
Some? Not so. Especially when things feel like coming in droves.
And for some, at least for me, it feels like we are grasping with all of our might to make sure we are still standing on top of the jelly and focusing on not falling down.
And the changes might not always be the major ones. Sometimes, it even comes in the form of small changes. The straw that broke the camel’s back. A different way to report a bug, a different way to follow a process, heck, even a different UI/UX on websites that you used to feel familiar with. Some come in blueberry-sized, and some come in cherry-sized.
Thankfully, we haven’t got the one watermelon-sized (hopefully not, and never!)
And with constant changes, it’s easy to see us struggling and wheezing, trying our best to keep focused. Goal? Motivation? Aspiration? Fuck them. I only want to be able to stand on top of my jelly.
While it’s so easy to see myself standing on top of a jelly, it’s interesting to wonder: “Who put me on top of the jelly in the first place?“
Several days ago, I chatted with my team lead, and they shared how they visualized their journey as mountain hiking. When they mentioned, “… … To see the summit as the goal,” we found what makes my image (jiggly jelly) and theirs (mountain summit) completely different (I even told them, “So that’s how you can keep your calm!”)
Their image is something that they can control. Hiking to the top of the mountain or surfing and riding the waves. It’s something that they know within their means and ability to manage.
Mine is something that I can’t control. The jelly will always be jiggly, even when I’m standing still quietly on top of it. I’m the one who put myself on top of the jelly. As a result, I can’t have a clear goal, let alone see it. I’m too busy balancing myself atop the jelly instead of looking at the bigger picture.
My colleagues (I have the best colleagues in the world. No kidding) shared this article with me.
And you know what? I will use that to go down from the top of the jelly.
Talk about burnout with friends, family, or trusted coworkers.
Set boundaries.
Find little moments of joy
Bonus: Get a coach! This is special because I always feel overwhelmed when I want to create an appointment. I always thought I was lazy or incompetent because of that. It turns out that it’s a really normal response, and I’m not alone! Knowing this helps me to feel more comfortable and confident in taking another step.
And perhaps, I will no longer stand on top of a really jiggly jelly. I will stand on top of a hill, looking at a mountain summit, and achieve my goal.
There will always be a time when we return to our jelly and have another jiggly-jelly moment while trying to climb a mountain (try to have that image for a moment.) Knowing that we can always talk about the jelly, get down, and climb the mountain again is comforting. Or just to sit for a while.
… Or make it every airline company with every route.
Cup noodles, a humble instant food, ready-to-eat with sodium, carbohydrates in the form of thin noodles, and hot soup that sometimes too hot when we slurped it impatiently as our tummy growls.
Air travel usually is tiring. Exciting, for some and for first-timers and kids, and it’s quick becoming tiring and stressful. The stress quick turns to headaches and cold tummy.
I once mentioned how cup noodles fast becoming my version of The Best Airline Food during my flight from Paris to Ho Chi Minh City. It was my second leg from three-legs flight from Madrid to Kuala Lumpur. I was tired due to lack of sleep and the stress of flying several months after the world recovered from the pandemic started to take its toll on me. It was night time (? I guess? It’s hard to know if it’s night time or day time or what time when you are flying and almost bonkers thanks to timezone weirdness) until I saw a passenger next to me called a flight attendant and requested, “I would like a cup noodles, please.”
I was so tired, manners be damned, and my curiosity got the best of me. “Excuse me. I’m so sorry. I heard you asked for cup noodles to the flight attendant. Is… Is that possible?”
He looked at me and nodded. “Yes. And Vietnam Airlines always serve cup noodles on their flights. I always use their service, you see, because I fly between France to Vietnam on regular basis. I always asking for cup noodles.”
A button pressed, a hand raised, and a, “can I have a cup noodles, please?” And 5 minutes later, I felt like home.
Just recently, my family and I went back to Indonesia for Eid and a vacation. We used TransNusa airlines. They are fairly new with the international flights. They have been handling Indonesia’s domestic flights for East Indonesia area, and it has been a fresh 4-5 months of their international flight on Jakarta – Kuala Lumpur route.
It was an evening flight, and the passengers were anxious to board. Our flight gate had to change because the flight before ours got canceled and the passengers got stuck at the boarding area. Despite the ordeals, the flight took off with only 5 minutes late from the scheduled time.
As a low cost carrier (LCC,) TransNusa does not include meals on their tickets, but passengers can purchase on-board meals. Most of us were hungry and tired. As for me, I had a headache.
Was it a good dinner? It was nothing much, but it was great.
Nindya’s quick blurbs
A month too late, but I just stumbled upon IKEA France’s Tiktok video, hinting a possible collab with Animal Crossing. Unfortunately, no further information about this other than IGN picked up this news when the video was posted.
