A Trip to a Beauty Salon

Two days ago I had hair cut in a beauty salon owned by my friend. It was almost six months since I last had my hair cut in December. The salon was empty, meaning no other customer than me and my two companies , unfortunately my friend was not around too. So, the salon’s top hairdresser would handle my hair. He asked me what kind of hair style I wanted. I said, I was not sure, cos actually I only wanted to have my hair look more neat for my cousin’s wedding in two weeks time.


So, one of the assistant brought a magazine full with beautiful girls with all sort of hair style. I was a bit confuse. These girls were already beautiful whatever hair style they chose. Finally with the help of the stylist, I pointed the picture of a beautiful short hair girl. Okay – no problem said the stylist.. I would adjust the style with your face..


It only took 15 minutes for him to cut my hair, while I said my little prayer so the new style will not look odd in my face. At first look it was okay, but not too satisfactory. After paying to the cashier (55 thousand rupiah), I gave a tip to the stylist (only gave him 5 thousand), ten percent of the hair cut price. Anyway, I like my look better the next morning.


I remembered giving a very generous tip to the stylist in one of the branded hair salon, in one of the biggest mall in Jakarta. The hair cut price was 175 thousand at that time and I gave her tips of 20 thousand rupiah, cos I like her hair cut that time. My friend said the tips were too much, since the hair cut price was already expensive. It was 4 or 5 years ago. When I recounted that time, I was also surprised why I spent that much money only for my hair. Well I only cut my hair at maximum twice a year, so it was worth it. But now with so many other expenses coming, that lavish time was over for my hair. Expenses for my mortgage, saving commitment, house and car expenses has cut down my hair allowance to under 100 thousand.


Of course there were many who are still willing to spend hundreds of thousand rupiah for their hair cut. Hair was called woman’s crown, the most valuable treasure for her. One of my colleague didn’t want to cut her hair because her father told her not to. I heard story from a friend who had to ask permission from her husband to cut her hair. When we were at elementary school, the girls were so mad if the boys teased them by pulling their hair or put gum on their black long hair...ooohh that was disaster!!


Hair is so special for woman, that’s why beauty salon is a very prosperous and healthy industry. You can find small salon or barber shop in the small alley in a crowded residential slum, to the most convenient place at the biggest shopping mall in town.


Guinnes World Records stated the world’s most expensive hair cut was at Stuart Phillips Hair Salon in Covent Garden, London for the price of of £8,000 ($16,300) or 168 million rupiahs !!
I was stunned...this is the cost of one bed room apartment in Jakarta. Well, it’s government-subsidised apartment, but anyway..it is a hell lots of money. Stuart Phillips was the official hairstylist to The British Academy Television Awards since 2004. And of course, the record breaking haircut package includes a Champagne lunch, a head and scalp massage, a selection of personalised L’Oreal hair products and treatments, a return limousine ride from the airport, and of course, the haircutting skills of the internationally acclaimed Stuart Phillips, himself,
(Source :www.guinnessworldrecords.com/adjudications/071029_cut_above_beyond_rest.aspx).


Talking about pricey and what we consider valuable in our lives. So maybe our hair deserves that much amount of value or not, it is ours to decide. As for me hair is only a part of my whole being. As long as it fits my face, suits my personality, convenient enough for me (Jakarta is a very hot city today !), any hairdresser or salon is okay. However, on second thought..I think I still need to look for some recommendation first, as I have to live with the new look for the next six months.

Isn’t it beauty or good looking is a whole package of human being? Maybe we should also spend the same attention and care to make our inside look as beautiful as our outside look. As hair grows in time and we need to remodel it again, the same thing also happens to our heart and mind. Many new experiences happened, some are encouraging and some just bring sadness or disappointment. Bringing back beauty to our heart and mind is soul refreshing. There are many ways to do it, chatting and having coffee with old friends, do something nice for your self, do something nice for others, calling your parents, etc. As for me, the most refreshing salon time for my soul will be playing keyboard and singing my own song to my God.


So, enjoy your walk to your beauty salon today !

In Lions' Den

This morning my bible reading took me to Daniel 6, it’s about Daniel in lions’ den. A Sunday school story that I have been familiar with since I was 8 years old. So God, what else is new this morning ? After I read again, I learn some lessons from this old story. That how amazing the bible is...you’ll never get enough of it!

1. Excellence Pays off
Daniel was excellent in his service to his earthly king and his heavenly King. When we do our best in our service to our boss, either in a company or organisation, there will always be people who are jealous with what we do.They would say we are doing it because we are boss ‘s golden boy or golden girl .

It’s nothing new. The bible has recorded the same situation thousands years ago. When jealous officials tried to destroy Daniel, they could not find any mistakes in his jobs and responsibilities to king Darius. No corruption, love affair, murder attempt, suspicious rumours...No, he was so clean, that this group tried to attack Daniel from his service to his God. Apparently Daniel’s coworkers were well aware of his praying habits. Daniel never covered up his belief to Jehovah. He was bold in walking his faith to God.

Isn’t it difficult to work in environment where the people you work with always tried to take you down? Even when you got your boss in your side, how do we work with a group of colleagues that always say negative things about whatever we do ?

Surprisingly, Daniel managed to handle this kind of situation, even delivered the best performance, that the king planned to put him in charge of the whole kingdom after him.
His excellence in his professional work was due to his excellence in his personal service to God.

2. Knowing who we serve gives us boldness
So a law was issued, forbidding anyone to pray to any god or human except the king for the next thirty days. Everyone who disobeys this law must be thrown into a pit of lions. To avoid any possibilities of king’s mercy, the law was designed so it cannot be changed.

Isn’t it amazing that Daniel did not change his praying habit after he heard this law had operated? Or chose another secret place to pray. ..or another thought, just closed the window in his praying room, where he normally prayed for the next thirty days. After all the decree only last for one month wasn’t it?
No, he just did what he normally did, which was praying in front of the window that faced Jerusalem, three times a day. He made himself an easy prey for his jealous colleagues.

Where did Daniel get his faith in God? He knew Who he prayed to three times a day, all his life. He did not just kill the time in his praying time. It was really a precious time for him. It’s when God revealed the vision about the end of time, it’s when he got wisdom that he needed as king advisor, it’s when God gave him dream interpretation. So Daniel just knew Who he served and he did not hesitate to pray and ask God for help, even when it threatened his life.

3. An angel at our service
When Daniel was brought in front of king Darius, it seemed that the king was far more worried than Daniel himself. The king thought so hard how save Daniel all day, but the officials reminded him that no written law of the Medes and Persians can be changed, not even by the king. It was never written that Daniel was begging and pleading the king to pardon his life.

Finally Daniel was thrown into lions’ den. It was not only one lion in that pit, it should be at least 5 – 10 hungry lions in there, ready for their dinner. “ Bon Apetite!” said the devil’s’ advocate... Mission accomplished!

When we are spotless in front of people and God ,there’s always angel works in our behalf. While king Darius could not sleep all night long and canceled his routine all night dance party, Daniel was enjoying a remarkable night with exceptional companies, an angel and a bunch of lions as meek as lambs.

God could order His angel to shut any lions that tries to destroy us. Even when the most powerful people that we could think of could not helps us, He could send help in the way that we could never comprehend.

And do not bother our mind to think what we should do to retaliate with people who have bad intention to us. They are already in His judgement. The devil’s advocates team together with their families, were thrown into the lions’ den , which were suddenly felt very hungry indeed.

The Simple Things I do

Sometimes our life is not as exciting as what we would like to be. It’s not like a roller coaster that will turn you upside down 360 degrees, and swing you at 100 miles/hour speed. It’s not a kind of ride that will give a sense of thrill at one time and a sense of pure enjoyment and excitement at the next second.



Most of the time our life is just like a train going forward with a steady speed. In Indonesia the average train speed is 80 km/hour or 50 mile/hour. When everything is going well, you can predict what time you will arrive at the next train stop or next town.



It is very easy for us to just rolling through the life routine as usual. Dwelling in our own comfort zone, wishing we could be someone who can impact the world as Mother Teresa or Oprah Winfrey, but we do not know what kind of action that we could do, nor available time and resources.



Most of my jobs deal with doing simple things for others, such as calling service person to fix not – so cold air conditioner or refrigerator, calling engineering guy to fix broken intercom or leakage at their toilet, asking replacement for broken sofa, etc.



Sometimes I am asking myself, does it worth doing these kind of things? I did not feed homeless children or teach lessons to street kids or entertain senior citizens. Is this really important or am I only wasting my precious time?



Then one thought flashes to my mind. These simple things actually mean a lot to the person who ask my help. Most of my customers are professional workers. Some of them hold high position in their company and even own the business. Their immediate environment include their family, director, employees, suppliers and their potential clients. They will not be able to rest well if the room is hot. They will not be able to have a good home-cooked meal without refrigerator. Or they may become get irritated or cranky over these minor disturbance.



As a consequence these small problems may stir their emotion and disturb their ability to make the right decision. At the end, it will also affect their immediate environment...employees get scolded, can not focus during weekly briefing, can not enjoy good rest at home..



Maybe I’m only exaggerating or just trying to get the real meaning of my life. Well, the above thinking has comforted me in my distress time. And the Spirit inside me says,” Whatever you do, do it your best as it for God.” So, it’s not my task to compare myself with others. I believe the little things I do will help others. And recently He gave me more simple tasks to do. He connected me with people that are willing to share their life with me and allow me to share my advise to them and even pray for them.

I know my simple things with God could be significant to others... moreover, My Father knows what is done in secret.

I will make the most of my ride in my passenger train. This is my only journey and along the ride there is a good chance for me to meet new people, enjoy beautiful scenery that I missed most of the time and be grateful of what He has brought me so far.

A Brand New Start

This is the first time I type using my laptop after its hard disk reformat. No more old pictures, notes, personal journal, wallpaper, games. It’s all gone already. So it’s kind of odd seeing the monitor display so clear and spacious and no folders and files under my document, my music and my pictures.


Well, although I don’t feel as bad as when someone stole my bag with all its contents 2 years ago (which also includes PDA belongs to my office & I should replace it), still I felt there are something inside of me missing. My old photos with my family, old time work colleague, private photos at Kota Tua, Jakarta, and many others…it’s all gone. My personal journal, sharing, wallpaper, games, songs, they are all disappeared.

No one else to blame but myself, who have never backed up the data for the past 6 years. But it’s no use to keep feeling sorry to myself.. It’s time to go on with life and start to write new personal journal, download new music, wallpaper and photos. Life never stops when problem occurs. It keeps rolling and as Forrest Gump’s mom said,” Life was like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re gonna get."

I believe there will be new notes, writing and even memorable pictures that will be kept in my laptop again (and for sure it will be backed up weekly or monthly …). I have just experienced so little and there are still many more journeys waiting to be explored.

So as I save my first notes here in my laptop, I am excited to see many more notes will be coming soon. Writings about personal experience, exciting journey, funny, sad, happy or mixed moments.

Life is never boring!