The lighter things in life

The Jakarta Post   |  Wed, 01/23/2008 10:37 AM  |  To Do List

Do your part and be a tourism ambassador for this country you currently call home. In Visit Indonesia Year, join the Culture and Tourism Board’s efforts and get your foreign friends excited about coming to see more than just Bali.

Buy your tickets to next month’s Java Jazz Festival (7-9 March). True to tradition, the popular jazz concert event, now in its third year, assembles another spectacular line-up that’s pure music gold. Al Jarreau, Incognito, Earth, Wind and Fire, Lee Ritenour, Greg Adams, Lenny Castro and The Manhattan Transfer are just a handful of the acts on this year’s stellar guest list.

Put a little effort into Valentine’s Day this year and do something – anything – that doesn’t take a couple of minutes to plan. If you can’t bring yourself to shell out for presents, overpriced flowers or a nice dinner, at least resolve to do the following. Guys, pick up after yourselves on that day and ladies, lay off the nagging for one day.

Score major brownie points and surprise your mate with a romantic hotel stay. The St Regis Jakarta won’t be ready until 2011, but here’s an idea: preview its offerings at the newly opened St Regis Singapore instead! The 5-star luxury hotel, located on the city’s famous shopping stretch, Orchard Road, is guaranteed to pull out all the romantic stops for your Valentine. If you prefer something closer to home, check out new kid on the Bali block, the Anantara in Seminyak Bali, scheduled to open this month.

Steel yourself to find out what fortunes or pitfalls lie ahead. As Chinese New Year preparations and celebrations get underway, take a leaf from the millions of Chinese around the world who will find out – to varying degrees – how their fortunes will pan out in the Year of the Rat. Seek out your Chinese horoscope at www.proastro.com.

Root for your favorite stars and movies of the past year when the 81^st Academy Awards are held on February 24. Catch the over-effusive thank you speeches, the upsets and the fashion delights and disasters of the night on Star World.

Go high-tech with your reading. Book retailer Amazon’s Kindle (US$399) is making headlines as one of top gadgets of last year. Packing 256mb of internal memory in its 6-inch, 289g frame, the portable e-book reader, which also plays MP3s, allows bookworms to purchase and download e-books from Amazon’s selection of 90,000 e-books and digital versions of top dailies.

+ Chan Hse May

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