Model Olga peddles books and bicycles
Model Olga peddles books and bicycles
A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Model and television presenter Olga Lidya is not afraid that
cycling through the city's streets would damage her smooth skin
and hairstyle.
"I'm not worried at all. Maybe I could try it on Sunday. But
the administration should first build special lanes for cyclists
as many other countries have done," Olga told The Jakarta Post
after a hairstyle fashion show recently.
Olga said special lanes in the city's main thoroughfares were
important for the safety of the cyclists, who would have to
negotiate Jakarta's acute traffic jams.
The 171-centimeter-tall model supported the recent campaign by
the Bike to Work (B2W) Community, saying that the movement could
greatly contribute to reducing the city's air pollution.
In a more metaphysical role, Olga is also the spokeswoman for
the Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi).
To keep fit, she regularly exercises on a treadmill at home in
the mornings.
Born in Jakarta on Dec. 4, 1976, Olga began her career on the
catwalk before working in television and film.
A sinetron (TV soap opera) star of Lo Fen Koe, Olga who has
Chinese blood, plays a Chinese girl in the progam that seeks to
promote ethnic tolerance and integration in Indonesia.
She also acted in the recent horror flick 12 a:m playing in
the Cinema 21 group for months this year.
A fan of Sarah Jessica-Parker's character in the television
series Sex and City, Olga's obsession is maintaining her
lifestyle as an independent woman.
Preferring loose, casual clothes rather than girly dress-ups,
you are more likely to find her in a cafe reading books rather
than perched in a beauty parlor.
"Actually, in the past I was a tomboy. I like simple dress,"
she said.
Olga loves reading and has collected hundreds of books in her
private home library.
She recalled that when she was an elementary student, her
mother was once angry with her because she spent most of her time
reading books and often forgot to study.
A teacher once confiscated a novel she was reading, Earnest
Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, because she was supposed to
be learning the state Pancasila ideology.
A fan of Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie mysteries, her
current favorite book is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
"Although I'm very busy, I always allocate time to read.
Reading gives a valuable thing to me: Knowledge."