living in the sticks or lack of pizza anger!

Fer goodness sake.

now i know i'm living in the sticks.well da outskirts of Jakarata that is, it pretty much is jakarta, tho officially i live in Tangerang not jakarta.most my indo friends laff when i tell them where i live in that they would consider travelling to the moon to be somewhat closer than my area.anyway - may nice houses, schools, streets and shops around here.

BUUUUUUUUUUUUT! it is saturday nite

i just rang the local pizza shop wanting a delivery!

but no, they are CLOSED! WTF? a pizza shop closed by 10pm on a Saturday Nite?

Whats the world coming too! ?

mobile phones and water

Went to a fun park in a place called Dufan in Ancol, north jakarta today. Roller coaster rides, ferris wheel etc, all good fun. towards the end of the day we decided to go on the 'bumber boats' a bit naff but they were ok. As I was getting out of the boat my mobile phone slipped out of my pocket into the water ! Doh!

2 metres deep! Doh! - anyway one of the attendants apologised (I'm not sure why, it wasnt his fault) another one stripped off and went swimming in this murky brown water, he found the phone, but surprise surprise it doesnt work, i took it to the bathroom and dried it under the hand dryer - still no luck!

It was only 3 months old, guess i need a new one, but in the meantime i feel quite naked without a phone! fortunately the SIM card works, but no phone numbers on it either!

trouble flying home

i flew to hong kong for the weekend. yesterday (after a very big night) i got up, checked out, thought abt lunch but then in Hong kong you can check in your bags in the citym which is very convienient - so i decided to do that first, so i would then have the luxury of lunch, watch some footy meander thru the shops before heading out to the airport.

firstly i wasnt the only person who though the same thing, a longish wait to check in (maybe 40 odd minutes) - only to be told by the girl at the counter having presented my passport and frequent flyer card - that i dont have a ticket!! WHAT?? - its an eticket - can u check again?

"Oh, its been cancelled" come again? why - apparently my travel agent didnt send on some booking number or some such. She told me to contact him, and that she couldnt help me - in fact she got a bit cross with me! So its about midday or 1.00 - i take the train to the airport, remember i havent even eaten breakfast yet...

airport - Cathay counter - tell me it was cancelled, then they change their mind, I was booked on the 9.00am flight not the 4.00pm, so i've missed. well, this was not the case and clearly i didnt catch the am flight so can I get onto the 4.00pm flight? Booked. Great, well whats the next one? Tomorrow? that's really no good - i need to be at work. (and also didnt want to spend another 700 or 800 HKDollars.

Actually tomorrow's pretty full also, you may not be able to fly back until tuesday .... now this is getting really uncool. Can i get onto standby tickets? Yep - thats another counter over there.

Righto - off to said counter, I'm registered for the standby for the 4.00pm flight - come back at 3.00opm they say - so i have lunch read a book and trot back down there. plane is deylayed, come back at 4.45pm - i still dont have a flight - this is just to find out if i can have a flight or not. so i wait some more time - i also ring my boss, let him know there is a possibility that i wont make it tomorrow (having been on a footy trip- it looks pretty made to miss a day or two of work!) i go back - and guess wot delayed again...hmmm - this is not good

so - i wander upstairs to the bar again - eat some more, had a drink or two, continued to read my book (hope i dont finish it early!) back down again, this time it is leaving, i think. i wasnt feeling hopeful. its now 6.00pm finally they call me up - start processing my ticket - then another staff starts saying something in chinese to the one serving me- wait a minute please - they say....Oh no - so close and now denied! :(

but then they allow me the boarding pass, but u have to run they say - gate closes at 6.25 and it was now after 6.00 - crap! so run I do, and make it ! phew.

plane then arrives at about 10.30pm - a heap of tired and upset people due to the unexplained delay, i was just happy to have made it..... wait for my bag to arrive, and guess wot? Its lost!

so by the time i reported it lost, filled in the forms and then the drive home - it was after middnight! - i'll certainly think long and hard before flying Cathay again!

footy in hong kong

a letter from one of the footy boys in china, i'm due to join them in hong kong in 2 days time!

Dear all

The Bintangs are still on tour in China, preparing intensively as we speak at asecret training venue in Beijing in readiness for this weekend's big clash withthe HK Dragons, our first full length game in the Special Administrative Region.

We played a three-way tournament in excellent conditions in Shanghai on the weekend. The local team, the Tigers, beat an undermanned Tokyo Goannasoutfit by about 6 goals in the opener.We then flogged the Goannas by about 80 points in our first game. Fester wasBOG with 5 goals before Gracey took him off to prevent him from breaking anygoal-kicking records.

In what was then a play off for the Cup, a brave Bintangs outfit went down byabout 6-7 goals to a larger and rested Shanghai squad after being right in ituntil boom Yogya SFE recruit Ray "the Reverend" Terns was knocked out cold in a nasty clash in the third quarter. With a limited bench, Fester playing on with a broken finger and our on-ballers stuffed, a pretty decent Shanghai side tookover in the last quarter to run out deserved winners.

I am pretty confident wecan turn the tide on them in Bangkok, however. Incidentally, Ray has made a full recovery after a night in hospital for observation. The full squad played very well and will continue to improve. TheBintangs are on the march in 2007.

mai pen rai attitude

I have a very nice watch, its an Omega Seamaster and about 40 years old, belonged to my father first. For years I've had to use non-omega watch bands with it since the Omega Dealership and registered repairer in Bangkok, where i used to live told me that omega do not make band to fit this style of watch anymore, I asked them could they purpose build one, answer no!

recently my band on the watch broke again and looking for it to be repaired was proving difficult. I asked some friends what to do with it....

and guess what? Genuine Omega Spring Bars

Omega do make pins and bands to fit it - the all too common thai sales attitude of cannot do, dont have, mai pen rai had been at play again!

I didn't even realise. Having lived in thailand for a number of years, I like to think that i'm reasonably savvy when it comes to cultral idiosyncracies so why did i think that an authorised Omega dealership would be any different! Wot an idiot I am. Guess i'll get it fixed next time i am in Aus.....

playing sport

I really do love my sports, at school on tuesday we had arranged a game of touch rugby verses the students - who had just completed a unit on the game. Touch is a fast and skillful game - these boys played well.

Personally I just enjoyed the comaradrie of the teams and running around - sure keeps u fit, but the heat is always a killer.

In most every part of Asia there are a number of expat teams and sports and clubs to get into - I play with Rebels Cricket Club, Jakarta Bintangs Aussie Rules and the F30 Ninja Pornstars Pool league.

trying to take the girl out of thailand

well - i guess moving countries was just too much and too hard. My gal, bless her heart and yes i miss her, aint coming back. She tried, I tried, it just didnt work out.

i dont really feel like going into too much detail, but basically she just didnt like living away from Thailand. Which is awfully ironic when one considers the iron clad negative attitude of australian immigration policies..... most of the Asian people i met, including me gal, just DONT WANT to immigrate to Australia or any where else!

Perhaps someone should tell Jonny "Asian Invasion" Howard.....