[The Gonz]

+ Met the Chief of Air Force at a low key dinner at the Embassy on Thursday
+ Were given Kempinsky Hotel accommodation as usual for the two of us, including Executive Lounge access
+ Great vantage point for watching the riots
+ The one night is paid by the Embassy (approx. $300)
+ Decided to stay in Jak an extra night
+ Decided to penny pinch and save our big bucks for Spain in a couple of weeks
+ Booked into Mercure at 25% of the Kempinsky cost
- No Executive Lounge
- Gym didn't have dumbbells any larger than 10kg (I'm averaging 18kg for curls and 32kg for bench presses)
- Room was about half the size
+ Were given vouchers for complimentary welcome drinks and $10 off meal costs
+ Enjoyed tea / coffee and shared a $10 four-seasons pizza (carbs! ) on the house
+ Parking and WiFi free

All in all, surprisingly good value.

Hotel in Jakarta | Mercure Jakarta Simatupang

[Dazzler]

+ Met the Chief of Air Force at a low key dinner at the Embassy on Thursday
+ Were given Kempinsky Hotel accommodation as usual for the two of us, including Executive Lounge access
+ Great vantage point for watching the riots
+ The one night is paid by the Embassy (approx. $300)
+ Decided to stay in Jak an extra night
+ Decided to penny pinch and save our big bucks for Spain in a couple of weeks
+ Booked into Mercure at 25% of the Kempinsky cost
- No Executive Lounge
- Gym didn't have dumbbells any larger than 10kg (I'm averaging 18kg for curls and 32kg for bench presses)
- Room was about half the size
+ Were given vouchers for complimentary welcome drinks and $10 off meal costs
+ Enjoyed tea / coffee and shared a $10 four-seasons pizza (carbs! ) on the house
+ Parking and WiFi free

All in all, surprisingly good value.

Hotel in Jakarta | Mercure Jakarta Simatupang

No wonder we get on well Gonz. We are practically twins with our penny pinching ways...

[The Gonz]

 

[neptune]

Daz  and Gonz

[Surferdude]

Twins separated at birth. 

[Dazzler]

 

[PhireSideZA]

*tumbleweed rolls by*

Just checking in on you lot and making sure you are all behaving (or misbehaving when no one is watching)

Cheerio

[meehalych]

- the winter is here - we had a heavy snow fall recently that lasted for 2 days and caused a traffic collapse
+ my DeLonghi coffeemachine is on the way to me from Germany
+ the construction of my home is over

[The Gonz]

- the winter is here - we had a heavy snow fall recently that lasted for 2 days and caused a traffic collapse
+ my DeLonghi coffeemachine is on the way to me from Germany
+ the construction of my home is over

More time to stay home and have good coffee.

[tohis]

At next weekend I'm going into Helsinki for Auto 2016 exhibition.
Auto 2016 -tapahtuma | Messukeskus | 18.-20.11.2016

Apart from having lots of cars to see inside the expo hall (and overpriced coffee and merchandise etc.), there's also a big test driving event, having about 200 cars for anyone to try under company representative's supervision. I have already signed up as a test driver (which they require), and managed to book three cars to have a spin: Lexus IS300h, Toyota Prius and Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid. I may be able to have more test drives booked on site, as they will not give all of them booked beforehand in order to give a chance for more people.

With a bit of luck, I may also see the new 2017 i30 at there. Some time ago I sent an e-mail to Hyundai Motor Finland and asked about it, and got an answer that they are trying to get one into the Auto 2016, but couldn't confirm it yet.

[Dazzler]

At next weekend I'm going into Helsinki for Auto 2016 exhibition.
Auto 2016 -tapahtuma | Messukeskus | 18.-20.11.2016

Apart from having lots of cars to see inside the expo hall (and overpriced coffee and merchandise etc.), there's also a big test driving event, having about 200 cars for anyone to try under company representative's supervision. I have already signed up as a test driver (which they require), and managed to book three cars to have a spin: Lexus IS300h, Toyota Prius and Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid. I may be able to have more test drives booked on site, as they will not give all of them booked beforehand in order to give a chance for more people.

With a bit of luck, I may also see the new 2017 i30 at there. Some time ago I sent an e-mail to Hyundai Motor Finland and asked about it, and got an answer that they are trying to get one into the Auto 2016, but couldn't confirm it yet.

Great! I'm jealous! I look forward to your feedback. From what I have seen and read, I much prefer the look of the Ioniq over the latest prius, but the prius may have the edge in refinement of drivetrain.

[xiziz]

Something fell of a timber truck going the other direction the other day and hit the right(!) side of my car, thought it hit the bonnet and that it would have left a dent(was a very loud clang) but instead it seems to have made a good scratch on the wheelarch. No fun nonetheless.

I rotated my tires studded tires when I put them on, they only did 8000km last winter so I thought it be a good time. Unfortunately one of the rear set(now front) seem to have worn in a bald spot or something, I got a horrible sound like there is a wet towel slapping the road every rotation. No vibrations though. Hopefully it will wear away soon.

On top of that, I've noticed fuel consumption is up from 4.4l/100km to 4.9l/100km since Hyundai serviced it(before fitting the studded tires).

I think its time to hibernate for the winter. 

[Dazzler]

Not good xiziz! They say things come in 3's so hopefully your next bit of news will be a +

[The Gonz]

+ Graduated from Indonesian Air Force Command and Staff course yesterday
+ Made life-long friends not least of which are the four other 'mancanegara' (foreign) students, from, the Us, India, Singapore and Malaysia
+ Only item on today's agenda was morning gym session at Celebrity Fitness
+ The next 3 days are about packing and cleaning to vacate the 'mansion'
- The civet came back last night, crawling in the ceiling space, urinating, woke Elena up at 3am
+ I slept through it
+ No civets in Melbourne
+ Yesterday we hosted a meal for all our house staff, martabak telur, martabak manis, gorengan and other nibblies
+ One week away from leaving Indonesia
- Despite all the blatant stupidity in this culture, our memory filtering will surely have us missing many aspects of this year
+ One week away from hitting Spain
+ One month away from hitting Oz
- Need to start lining up things like purchase of towbar and servicing consumables for Firty ahead of time

[Dazzler]

Mostly positives Gonz..

[CraigB]

Mmmm...Martabak/Murtabuk

Gonz, I'll see if Kamini's family can ship one of those Civets to your Melbourne address

[The Gonz]

Gonz, I'll see if Kamini's family can ship one of those Civets to your Melbourne address

[Doggie 1]

It sounds like a Honda.
Honda Civet.
You should get one, Gonz.
The power of dreams.

[tohis]

Greetings from Helsinki! I'm in a hotel after spending most of the day at the Auto 2016 exhibition, now feeling pretty stuffed after eating a big pizza and some beer. Tomorrow I'm going there again, and then will go back home by train. The 2017 i30 was there to see and it looked pretty okay in live, however I'm still a bit disturbed of how much the rear looks like VW Golf...

[Dazzler]

Thanks for the pix, I'm jealous! !

[meehalych]

+ I received DeLonghi coffemachine yesterday in a post office.
+ the delivery took 11 days, which is good as long as Russian post is considered
- one side of a box was damaged and taped
+ priority package paid its price - machine box was intact
+ auto cappuchinator is a cool feature - my girlfriend loved it with the first cup
+ it is my third day off today, one more day of laziness tomorrow; 3 days on duty and I am on vacation till 14 December 
+ flying to Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic on Saturday

[The Gonz]

Pretty positive, Mika.

+ This is our last night in Bandung
+ Tomorrow we drive to Jakarta
+ Saturday to Spain

[Dazzler]

Pretty positive, Mika.

+ This is our last night in Bandung
+ Tomorrow we drive to Jakarta
+ Saturday to Spain

Awesome

+ I received DeLonghi coffemachine yesterday in a post office.
+ the delivery took 11 days, which is good as long as Russian post is considered
- one side of a box was damaged and taped
+ priority package paid its price - machine box was intact
+ auto cappuchinator is a cool feature - my girlfriend loved it with the first cup
+ it is my third day off today, one more day of laziness tomorrow; 3 days on duty and I am on vacation till 14 December 
+ flying to Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic on Saturday

Equally awesome..

[The Gonz]

+ Hotel Mercure Sabang $107 a night, $119 with breakfast, flash Indonesian military ID, $90 with breakfast.

[Gramby]

It warm my heart to see how many people around the world love a good pizza.  The best pizza my lady and I ate during our vacation in Italy this past summer was at Ristorante Delicato in a small town called Poggibonsi.  Excellent Neapolitan-style pizza.

+ I now have a four-day weekend because of our Thanksgiving holiday.
+ Going to spend tomorrow with my lady, her kids, my kids, and my mum and dad eating good food and playing games
+ I get paid on Friday
+ We're having one of the warmest Novembers on record
-  I think either the wheel bearing or the CV axle on my Elantra Touring is going out
+ I ate pizza for supper tonight
+ In a short while my lady and I will enjoy a couple of what I call "Glasgow Mules," which is like a Moscow Mule but made with blended Scotch instead of vodka, and enjoy an episode of "Westworld."

[The Gonz]

We don't often have pizza since we avoid carbs in favour of protein but our last night in Bandung included trying a pizza at Miss Bee Providore.

+ Thin and crispy with very tasty topping, highly recommended!

Miss Bee Providore

[neptune]

You boys need to come to Fremantle Western Australia....... there is a pizza shop there that won top prize for the best pizza in the world.....no need to go to Italy...

[CraigB]

+ Got an all expenses paid trip to Prague offered to me courtesy of Avast for 4 days in January

- Wont be going because of a few roundtable discussions that require participation and I'd feel rather out of place ( bored shitless )  amongst all them analysts and coders

+ Got Japan trip coming up in March to look forward to instead

[The Gonz]

Surely you can come up with a dazzling new virus detection system based on heuristics across our increasingly connected cloud. Suggest that AV on individual devices is old hat and the 'net needs bots'n'agents roaming cyberspace like an organic immune system attacking free radicals.

That should be enough to get them talking and put you in the front row. You're welcome.

[Dazzler]

Be a long way to go for 4 days anyway Craig!