Going to the Football

(local) Football in Indonesia is a serious affair, supporters clamour onto busses trucks etc all dressed in their teams colours and the already busy roads became even worse (if that's possible in the Big Durian)

I'm not all that certain its particuarly safe, look at this picture, the bus inside is virtually empty and this, presumably poorly maintained rattle trap, is chugging down the highway with about 25 kids on the roof!

Thai New Year & Dangerous Roads

bloody song kran and idiot thai morons and alcohol, i bladdy had a bad feeling about my g/f going home for song kran this year, i told her over and over not to ride motorcycles in her village etc, to the point were she was well sick of the subject, i just 'felt' like something was gonna happen, had a dream about it last nite, i just got news that my g/f has been in an accident and is now in hospital..... feel useless a 1000 miles away! Damn thai's and song kran and drinking too much! stupid bladdy corrupted festival - should be canceled!

*sorry, rant over.*

but wierd how this year, as opposed to every other year i really felt worried abt it....

i think she ok now, she was walking home from the market and a dickhead on a motorcyc collected her, she went to hospital and has concussion and some cuts and bruising on her head, face and arm.they want her to return tomorrow to double check.so lucky I guess. coulda been a lot worse.

the situation was only made for difficult because my stoopid bladdy landline phone has decided in the last 2 days that her thai number is engaged.I can ring on my mobile, but its prepaid and costs around 40bht per minute, so tends to run out bladdy quickly.She sounded pretty shaken up, (as you would be I guess) but ok.

bikes and alcohol, just fills me with fear... I gather now that she is mostly alright - a bit sore and a big fright. dont have much more details at this stage cos of the stoopid phone thing.

i worry wheneva she drives, but at least you have a tonne of steel around you in the event of an accident, motorcyc its all hard gravel.but this time the poor gal was a pedestrian, (mind you i do know what thai pedestrians are like....) - but being song kran and all i'd be willing to bet a beer that the driver of the bike was a 14 year old whiskey guzzling twit speeding down the road..... anyway i just spoke to her again and she says she pretty much alright just feeling a little bit jeb. (thai word for sore!)

spoke to her again, she's just sore and bruised all over, the accident was 2 young drunk blokes (surprisingly enough) on a bike, after the accident they picked up their bike and fled the scene. fortunately her brother was nearby and took her to the hospital.

Sea Urchin Pain

A week and a half back I was in thailand on holiday. During a snorkeling and fishing trip I had the misfortune to step on a sea urchin..... ouch. But then it mostly got better, I thought.

Last thursday night football training was fine, friday morning was not - I could hardly walk! The nurse I visited cut out a 2 cm long needle, but there is more in my foot :( I missed the football game on saturday Jakarta Bintangs vs Christmas Island Dogs (we won though) and then sundays finals cricket game Rebels vs MGIS (we lost).

It still hurts, I am still struggling to walk, I gotta visit the nurse again, why do I keep avoiding it? Cos it hurts thats why, I hate having needles and stuff poking into my feet,

in fact I'm avoiding it right now!

Ghosts and Devils

I dunno wot it is, thai's believe implicitly in 'Pii' of ghosts, in fact my girlfriend wears a buddha amulet that protects her from ghosts that she never takes off. (one tried to assault her once while she was sleeping)

Anyway, this morning while i was having breakfast my maid came to talk to me, her english is not real good, and my bahasha indonesia is even worse, however, we established that her daughter is being possessed or chased by the devil, either since I went to the zoo months back, or a devil from the same zoo I went to - to her it is very real, perhaps the daughter is having epileptic fits. My maid was in tears, to her is is very real. I asked her if she wanted to go home for a week or something, but then she said something about needing money (oho, alarm bells.)

If she spends a month of her wages her daughter will be ok for 2 weeks, half that and she'll be protected or safe for one week.??

She is muslim, I dont recall this aspect of Islam. Hmmm, what to do? It sounds like the daughter is fitting and some quack is fleecing the family for every cent he can get.

My maid is muslim, I certainly dont recall this aspect of Islam,

Visa Runs

I've never needed to do visa runs before.... since I teach in International schools my work permits and visa's have always been sorted out. I had friends teaching in thailand that used to have to do a visa run to the border and back every few months and heard all the horror stories of packed busses getting stuck over the border, having overstayed visas and being fined, but it was not for me.

Buuuuuuuuuuut, since my lovely g/f is living with me in Indo and since she is thai - she is only allowed to stay in country for 30 days at a time.....

hmmm, so in 2 weeks w are flying to singapore for a weekend - (nice, but gets a little expensive, 30 days is not a long time.....)

aah well, the things we do.....

but if she was a western girl, she'd get 3 months at a time, just another example of racism in the world.... sigh.

teaching in indonesia

This is my first post for this, my new blog. I'm teaching in a National plus school in Indonesia in the city of Tangerang, which is basically being swallowed by Jakarta. I'm a science teacher, Biology, being my area of speciality.

I've previously taught in Indonesia, about 1o years ago, at an international school, and also spent the last 5 years teaching in Bangkok, thailand, at a large international school in Bangkok.

www.ajarn.com is an english teachers based website for thailand (ajarn being the thai-word for teacher)